Gundam/Awesome

Mobile Suit Gundam

 * "This is no Zaku boy. No Zaku..."
 * In the final episode, after Char and Amuro disable each other's mobile suits (which was also awesome), Char lures Amuro into an armory and baits him into a Sword Fight, taunting him that his piloting skills and Newtype powers wouldn't help him. They then proceed to get into a Single-Stroke Battle: Char stabs Amuro in the shoulder...Amuro stabs Char in the forehead, the latter being saved only by that ridiculous mask. His spacesuit from his girlfriend helps too.
 * Then Char gets his own back in his last scene of the show, where he braves a Collapsing Lair to deliver final vengeance for his father in a manner most awesome - namely, by
 * Of course, don't forget how he handled his best friend, another Zabi. A normal bastard will leads his best friend right into an enemy trap. A Magnificent Bastard? Calls him on the phone, explains his motives, and waves good-bye.
 * "Take your sorrow, and turn it into anger! Zeon thirsts for the strength of its people! SIEG ZEON!" Gihren Zabi taking the death of his little brother and turning it into a political rally; not in the final episode, but still an iconic moment for the series.
 * His younger sister gets one herself, as she reveals just WHO is the last Zabi standing.
 * Andrew WK did a fandub of that speech. It is glorious.
 * Gackt, being a a huge fanboy of the series pulls it off in a live concert!
 * We're Jumping on to White Base!
 * AAAAAAAAH!
 * Dozle Zabi gets a pair of them in the same episode. The Zeon are losing their massive battle against the Federation at the asteroid base Solomon. So, in order to give almost everyone time to retreat, Dozle takes an incomplete mobile armor into action - the Big Zam. Piloting this on his own, Dozle is essentially able to decimate the Federal Forces until, of course, our main character shows up. Still, Dozle essentially holds off an entire army on his own - and it takes a Heroic Sacrifice to even make the mobile armor vulnerable to damage.
 * The second one? After Amuro disables the Big Zam, Dozle still hasn't given up. He picks up a machine gun, steps out of the Big Zam and starts shooting at the Gundam.
 * And to drive it even further, Dozle's determination gets embodied by a demonic spirit creepy enough that Amuro practically craps his pants.
 * Even the wimp Cameron Bloom gets a genuine CMOA when . Even Big Brother Mentor Sleggar, who once hit him for disrespecting Mirai's feelings, had to recognize the guy had grown some balls
 * How could you guys forget the battle at Side 6? A damaged White Base is being pursued out of a neutral colony by two Zeon battleships. Right after passing the neutral perimeter and into no-man's space, Bright chooses to engage the enemy which is still inside of the neutral zone and cannot fire back. The result? White Base utterly destroys the enemy with Amuro single-handedly shooting down 9 out of 12 enemy Rick Dom suits and downing a battleship. All in the matter of three minutes.
 * Not actually in the series proper, but General Revil's "Zeon is exhausted!" speech. With the Federation on the brink of total surrender after Zeon's opening blitz, he escapes from captivity and broadcasts his speech exhorting the Federation to fight on. The full text of the speech appears in the novels.
 * Kycilia got a damn good one near the end when she confronted Gihren about . Gihren launches into this big, Social Darwinist speech about how humanity must advance and eliminate weakness--and then Kycilia shoots him in the forehead, because patricide is not cool in Zeon. Then she calmly takes command of the fleet while the stunned pilots watch Girhen's body bounce off the ceiling.

Gundam: Mobile Suit Gundam The 08th MS Team

 * Whilst taking place in the same time frame as the original series, this series also has some awesome moments. This troper believes that the one that trumps all other moments in the series is summarized in Two Words: Norris Packard.
 * Also, in the middle of his fight with Norris, the main protagonist, Shiro Amada, after going into something of an Unstoppable Rage, rips off his own unit's damaged arm in order to fight with Norris further, and uses it as a bludgeon.
 * These moments pale, however, when compared to the first episode, in which Shiro destroys a high-mobility prototype Zaku(which is essentially a Rick Dom with a Zaku torso and head) with a Ball.
 * For This Troper, the moment in which Terry's Gundam jumps to attack the first Apsalus encountered by the protagonists, can basically be summed up as "Real Robot, that's a Gundam! I can die happy!"
 * Shiro Amada gets nearly a minute of pure awesome, when in Episode 8 he.
 * One Zeon tank, which are next to useless against Gundams pins down two even disable one for a time.

Gundam: MS IGLOO

 * The second episode of The Hidden One Year War featured the failed prototype YMT-05. It's moment came when it manages to take out six stolen Zakus single-handedly. The panic that ensued when it changes to a half tank, half mobile suit form was also priceless. Sadly, it ended with the death of the test pilot as well.
 * The Hidden One Year War: After being shamed in propaganda, Major Jean Luc Duvall manages to pull this off, along with a Heroic Sacrifice during Zeon's escape from Odessa. He almost single-handedly defeated the squadrons attacking the stranded escape pods, then he lured a newly arrived GM team into a race where the sheer speed of the chase blew them up. He was even able to give a Final Speech to the crew of the Jotunheim shortly before dying.
 * Erwin Cadillac and his team in Apocalypse 0079, a trio of Zeon cadets sent out in worker capsules hastily refitted with weapons, take out a full squadron of Balls all on their own. One of them by whacking it with its own cannon (which Erwin had previously ripped off).
 * During the Battle of A Baoa Qu in Apocalypse 0079, Engineering Lieutenant Oliver May, despite having no previous piloting experience, uses the Big Rang Mobile Armor and slaughters E.F.S.F. forces left and right, until got to the point where enemy pilots thought he was Char. This is helped along by the fact that the Big Rang was red.
 * In the first episode of MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity Front, when Lieutenant Ben Barberry fights and defeats a Zaku II on foot using a giant pothole and a guided missile.
 * Shortly after that was awesome as well, when the third Zaku burst from the ground, the camouflage netting caught on it's back made it look exactly like what The Federation soldiers called them, Shinigami. And then, the Lieutenant draws his pistol and starts shooting at it knowing full well he was going to die.
 * In the second episode of MS IGLOO 2: Harmann Yandell and Leiban Sura and their allies taking down four Zakus in tanks, despite the loss of the entire squad except the aforementioned two characters by the end of the skirmish, killing one of Zeon's most renowned aces in the process.
 * From the third episode of MG IGLOO 2: Guntank charge!

Gundam 0080

 * Bernie certainly deserves a mention for being able to hold his own against the new, insanely powerful, state of the art Gundam for at least a few minutes, despite being only an inexperienced rookie in a battered, mass-produced Zaku.
 * One could argue that is both an awesome moment
 * Of course, since Bernie is voiced in the English dub by David Hayter - THE DAVID HAYTER - this makes perfect, poignant sense.
 * Take a moment to process that. He took on a GUNDAM with a ZAKU, and knowing the pathetic odds of success too. That's pretty awesome in this troper's opinion.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory

 * Gato has a few of these, but one of them is iconic: "Solomon, I have returned!" Also, who knew that firing a nuke could actually be cool?
 * The Gundamjacking of the Physalis. Dressed in a Federation uniform, Gato walks into the Albion, hops into the Gundam, draws its beam saber and cuts his way out through the hull.
 * Also later when Gato gives a short speech about seeing the whole picture, and when Uraki responds with "Yes, Sir!", Gato says "I'm the enemy, you idiot!"
 * Of course, it would be wrong not to mention the way Kou defeats Cima.

Zeta Gundam
"- Kamille: Hey, Mister MP! Wanna know what it's like to be picked on by somebody bigger than you?"
 * In the first episode, Kamille is beaten up by Titans Military Police. Later in the episode, he comes back in a stolen Gundam...


 * Of course, Char gets another one of these moments: after being cornered in a damaged ship, proceeds to force Haman to retreat by blowing up the ship around him.
 * Which follows a moment in the previous episode in which Char kills every single Axis soldier with one shot from The Mega Bazooka Launcher.
 * Kamille manages a pair of moments in the last two episodes, one being the eponimous Wave Rider Crash scene. The other is when he channels his rage into the Zeta Gundam to create an impenetrable barrier of anger, and using that rage, turns his regular old Beam Saber into an Infinity+1 Sword of extreme length, cleaving an enemy suit in half from a huge distance away.
 * Obviously, Amuro needs at least one CMOA in this series: The Adhumla, the AEUG's flying command center, is under attack from a powerful Federation Asshimar suit. Unfortunately, Char and Kamille are ill-equipped with shot ammo instead of bazookas. When the Asshimar is about to go in for the killing blow on the Adhumala's bridge, Amuro makes his big damn hero entrance by flying in on a cargo plane and ramming it into the enemy suit, throwing himself through the windscreen and forcing the enemy suit to retreat.
 * This Troper is pissed off that you guys have not mentioned one of Char's biggest CMOA's ever: his actions during the Dakar reunion, where
 * Don't forget Beltochika Irma finally showing that she had changed her childish ways, by
 * Let's not forget when Haman Karn boarded Jamitov Hymem's ship being expected to negotiate,  Haman-sama, indeed.
 * Mauve Shirt Elite Mook Ben Wooder defines Villainous Valour when, refusing to allow Four desertion to hold his army hostage, he climbs into the Psyco Gundam and does a decent job of flying it, despite having no Newtype potential whatsoever. He then earns another one when, with all his mobile suits shot down, he orders the rest of his men of his ship, and crashes it into the Audhumla, shoots Four when she attempts to stop him, and goes out firing a machine gun turret at the Zeta.

Gundam ZZ

 * Even this widely criticized series has its plain awesome moments including, but not limited to Neo Zeon commander Mashymre Celo drawing upon his artificial newtype powers to go out in a flashy blaze of awesome, taking out one of the vastly superior Doven-Wolf suits that had ambushed him in the process.
 * It's the fact he doesn't give up even at the end. Haman even goes on to remark he was stronger than she ever gave him credit for.
 * What about Judau having bombs strapped to the ZZ Gundam, and then strapping grenades to himself? And then, he forces his way into the Neo Zeon flagship with them.
 * In the final episode, during his duel against Haman, Judau reactivates the disabled Double Zeta by channeling the strength of the good men and women from the original series, Zeta Gundam, and ZZ, including, Lalah Sune, Four Murasame, Katz Kobayashi, Sarah Zabiarov, and lastly Kamille Bidan. He then unleashes a tremendous Wave Motion Gun blast on Haman before their duel ends with a Single-Stroke Battle exchange. This leads to a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, where Haman admits defeat as Judau asks why she didn't use as many funnels as she could've. Haman scoffs that they were conducting a duel and it wouldn't be fair, and dies with a smile on her face anyways, glad she came back if only to meet Judau.
 * Judau punching Bright Noah at the end of the series. Awesome for Judau for enacting revenge for all those Brightslaps that Bright handed out over the course of three series. Awesome for Bright because it let Judau vent all his frustrations.
 * As long as we're talking about Judau punching people we can't forget when he punched out that obnoxious prick Wong Lee. Made even more awesome by the way it punishes Wong for the way he beat up Kamille back in Zeta.
 * "I am Mashymre Celo, Zeon commander!" "I am Judau Ashta...." glances to the left and right "...currently skipping school!" ...although this may be a Crowning Moment of Funny, but let's just say it belongs here.
 * The Battle of Dublin is just an awesome sequence because of the way it establishes atmosphere, and the way it just keeps escalating the threats the characters face. The Neo Zeon are attacking Dublin! With a Colony Drop! And they're sending in mobile suits to stop everyone from escaping. And one of them is the Psyco Gundam Mark II!

Victory Gundam

 * Even though it isn't a gundam that is stolen, it takes some amazing skills for a 13 year old (the main character) to: Grab hold of the flying mobile suit after landing on it in a parachute, fight hand to hand the ace pilot who is far older and is wearing an helmet, and after a brutal fight managing to take control of the machine underwater. It really needs to be seen to be believed.
 * Though it overlaps with a major Tear Jerker, the kamikaze run of the Reinforce Jr. definitely qualifies, from all the defiant looks on the old guys' faces to the music in the background. Probably the most awesome part of it, though, is the long-overdue manning-up of the ship's captain, the fake Jinn Gehenam, who decides to go down with the rest of the bridge crew.

Char's Counterattack

 * The most notable one is in the ending. After defeating Char in battle, Amuro tries to push back the Colony Drop Char was planning throughout the entire movie. Physically. Although this would be a suitable one for Amuro, it's even more of one for the series' Mooks. As Amuro struggles to push back to Axis asteroid, which would send the Earth into a new ice age, the rank and file soldiers from both sides of the war charge in and help push the asteroid back, despite Amuro's pleas for them to go and save themselves, due to the fact that atmospheric re-entry would destroy their mobile suits. They gladly continue pushing back anyway, the soldiers of each side sacrificing themselves to save the earth, even as they explode left and right. This troper never thought he'd shed Manly Tears for faceless, nameless Mecha-Mooks like that.
 * My favorite was the second time Amuro faced the Zeon Ace Pilot Gyunei Guss, except this time it was a fair fight and Amuro took him out with barely breaking stride. Letting go of the shield in the middle of a smoke cloud and then flanking him was just one of those clever moves Amuro was known for.
 * For this troper, Amuro jumping out of a car to crash-tackle a horse-riding Char is the scene that sticks in his mind for the movie.

Turn a Gundam

 * Loran using the last two nuclear missiles in existence to stop a space colony from destroying a city on the moon.
 * UNIVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERSE! Enough said.
 * Harry Ord is full of these. See for yourself. Also doubles as Crowning Moment of Funny
 * Loran Cehack. End of Episode 8. That is all.
 * Dianna Soriel. End of Episode 10. That is all. Also qualifies as a Tear Jerker and a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
 * The final battle between Loran Cehack and Gym Ghingnham at the end of the series, not the final battle between Turn A and Turn X Gundams but these two. After the two Gundams are locked in each others Moonlit Butterfly attack Gym throws Loran a sword and asks him if he ever used one before, Loran replies that he did once and then proceeds to unleash Tranquil Fury upon Gym

Crossbone Gundam

 * Tobia. Motherfucking. Arronax. The kid is made of the damn things.

Gundam (all of it)

 * Just about every part of the 30th anniversary, including the life-size statue of the RX-78, and the two-minute animated short showing every single protagonist Gundam, up to the 00 Raiser and Unicorn, working together to get the Core Fighter into space.
 * Except for Shining Gundam, Strike, Impulse, and Strike Freedom, and possibly a few others I've missed.

Gundam Unicorn

 * One episode in, and series main character Banagher Links already has three. The first comes when he rescues Audrey Burne from falling to her death, ala Hikaru-and-Minmei, in a hijacked worker pod, which runs out of fuel in midair, thousands of feet up...and he still manages to crash-land it in the front yard of his own school, and get out unscathed.
 * The second comes when, facing three professional soldiers, he incapacitates two of them in the span of a couple of seconds(breaking the nose of one of them by headbutting him in the face), then a few moments later deals with the third of them by drop-kicking her, dodging her own kick, and actually grabbing her by the hem of her coat and physically throwing her off the platform on which they were standing.
 * This troper feels that this scene counts as a CMoA for said third character, Marida Cruz, as after her two comrades are incapacitated, she picks up the glasses of the one whose nose is broken, hops onto his back, THEN slides his glasses back onto his nose without even looking, and jumps off of him
 * "Go...and get the hell...OUT OF MY WAY!!!" 'nuff said.
 * Clarification: Banagher, in Unicorn, shows up, giving Marida a look of sheer terror. It then dives at the Khsatriya, which up to this point had done quite well for itself, and is easily three times Unicorn's mass. It tackles the Khsatriya, grabs the right hand which had just drawn a beam saber, and CRUSHES THE HAND. It hits full thrusters, forcing Marida to eat airbag, and slams it out of the colony. Once a moment's opening comes up, Marida sends EVERY SINGLE BIT SHE HAS (24 total) to kill this Gundam before it can do anything else. Unicorn responds by going into Newtype-Destroyer mode, creating an I-field that blocks every blast coming towards it, and transforms into a true Gundam's features, complete with red beard and V-fin. It draws a beam saber, and shit gets underway. Episode end. Good luck waiting for autumn.
 * A CMoA goes to Commander Daguza Mackle in the same episode, who gets out of his MS to take on the monstrously-heavily-armed Kshatriya with a bazooka, and actually survives (Technically, he attacked her with a giant flash-bang, though, which detracts from it somewhat)
 * Also, resident old guy Cardeas Vist, gets a CMoA when, while being held at gunpoint by three guys, at least one of which was a professional Special Forces operative, and unarmed himself...He proceeds to break the neck of the Special Ops guy with his bare hands, then use him as a meat shield while he grabs the dead man's gun and shoots his buddy in the face with it.
 * Another CMoA for a faceless grunt, the pilot of the Stark Jegan, a souped-up grunt, who actually manages to last more than two seconds against the aforementioned Kshatriya, and was actually managing to hold his own in close combat until she got the drop on him by firing her thrusters in his face. This also counts as a CMoA for her, as she manages to survive will equal professionalism and badassery too.
 * The release of Episode 2 gives us at least two more.
 * The combat debut of Full Frontal. The awesomeness begins when a panicked technician states that one of the approaching enemy mobile suits is moving three times faster than the others.
 * Marida's rematch with Banagher. Banagher, not listening to fellow pilot Riddhe, chases after Full Frontal, and is suddenly attacked from another direction. From out of nowhere comes the Kshatriya (which, might we add, has not been repaired since its last fight with the Unicorn), which proceeds to defeat the Unicorn Gundam with a single blow. How? Marida gets in close, immobilizes the Unicorn's arms with the Kshatriya's left arm and one of its three remaining wing binders, pulls back her suit's damaged right arm (the one with the crushed hand) and punches the Unicorn's cockpit at full force. The impact causes Banagher to vomit into his suit and pass out. Flawless victory.

Mobile Suit Gundam 00
"Hallelujah: Sayonara da, ONNA!!!"
 * Gundam Nadleeh's first on-screen appearance. After jettisoning Virtue's armor with enough force to send his attackers flying, Nadleeh grabs Virtue's Shoulder Cannons, crosses its arms in front of itself and fires a single shot from each over the other shoulder. That single shot instakills all six Tierens who were holding it down. Even resident Colonel Badass Sergei Smirnov was sufficiently intimidated by it to order a retreat... for the three remaining members of his squad. This incident cemented that if Tieria switches over to Nadleeh, he's serious; too bad he screwed it up by bawling his eyes out over how he wasn't supposed to reveal Nadleeh this early in the plan, breaking down to the point he stopped using masculine pronouns altogether.
 * Setsuna's final battle in the first season. He had just beaten the Big Bad of the first season, his Gundam is damaged and he's exhausted. Then out of nowhere Graham Aker shows up in his custom Flag... except that his Flag has a GN Drive tacked on it and is toting a beam saber! The two summarily proceed to tear each other's mobile suit to pieces in a short but very violent battle, trading Motive Rants back and forth all the while.
 * Allelujah never really liked when Hallelujah took over his body and went to kill stuff. So when Allelujah's Gundam is heavily damaged with the enemy actively searching the area for him, what do they do? They team up and temporarily merge, of course! We get to witness a hyper-awesome two-on-one Curb Stomp Battle where Doublelujah utterly owns Soma and Sergei at the same time.

"Wang: What's the matter? You seem rather unsettled- THWACK!
 * The 00 Raiser's first battle. Devine comes quite close to taking it down by stabbing it with a beam saber... only to find out the hard way that the 00 Raiser in Trans-Am mode can create a quantum wormhole and shunt itself through it; what she hit was only a post-teleportation afterimage. By the time she realized what happened, Setsuna destroyed her weapon with a surprise attack. Then she tried to cut him again... only for him to teleport once again (this time with an awesome shot of the Gundam materializing into existence from glowing particles) and deliver the coup de grace from behind. Even Ribbons was completely floored by it...
 * ...which didn't prevent him from getting his own moment right afterwards when Wang Liu Mei tried taunting her: he backhanded her so hard she fell off her feet. Granted, she had it coming for quite a while but still.

Ribbons: Shut up, you greedy little bitch."


 * Possibly the greatest moments of the second season were in the 17th episode.
 * First, Celestial Being got the 00 Gundam into space with a two-stage acceleration by flying vertically upwards in the Ptolemaios and using the momentum to launch the 00 and the 0-Raiser, the two combining in mid-air and flying forth on their own. In the upper atmosphere, the Empruss ambushed and almost killed them... then the 00-Raiser went Trans-Am and not only blew the Empruss away with a single shot but used the particle beam as a gigantic beam saber hundreds of kilometers long. The enemy's reaction was simply priceless.
 * When the Memento Mori's dying shot hit the orbital elevator, the good guys called out to everyone on the battlefield that the fragments of the elevator are going to hit heavily populated areas and kill millions. Cue Celestial Being, Katharon, the Federation army and even A-LAWS deciding to shoot the falling debris instead of each other with what is probably the largest furball of mobile suits gathered at one time in the whole series. Not just Gundams and A-LAWS' state-of-the-art mobile suits but even obsolete mooks like Flags and Tierens from the first season, all working together to save those lives.
 * An absolute hilarious moment was Devine trying to ... only to find out the hard way that Saji's Haro hitched a ride in the cockpit! The Haro promptly went into Hyper-Destructive Bouncing Ball mode, pinballing around the cockpit and hitting Devine a few times before landing on the control panel and initiating a docking sequence with the 00 Gundam. It has to be seen to be believed.
 * The final fight of the series: Setsuna piloting the Exia versus Ribbons piloting the 0 Gundam. Why is it awesome? Just consider who is Ribbons' seiyuu and take a look at his machine. Looks familiar? Damn right it does; it's a goddamn RX-78! It is simultaneously a touching homage to the original Mobile Suit Gundam and (through Setsuna's victory) a symbolic Passing the Torch to the newer Gundam series.
 * Then came The Movie, chock-full of awesome moments.
 * One can be summed up thus: what's better than Doublelujah curbstomping stuff in a Gundam? Doublelujah and Soma/Marie co-piloting a Gundam. That's right, the two most successful results of the HRL's Super Soldier project fighting side by side in a Battle Couple!
 * Every time Gundam Zabanya gets into a fight. Every single time. If the target doesn't die in a Macross Missile Massacre, it WILL in the following Attack Drone Beam Spam.

Ecole Du Ciel

 * Asuna in volume 8-9...
 * First, pilots a mobile suit with no arms through a raging battle to get to the Le Cygne...
 * Second, when she gets in the Le Cygne, an MS she's never piloted before, using minimal movement to dodge cyber-newtype Erisia's shots by a hair...
 * And finally, when Erisa tries going into close combat, demonstrating just why the staff nicknamed the Le Cygne "Kunoichi Gundam".

Fandom

 * mahq.net's 2003 April Fools' Day announcement of a Gundam SEED sequel that fooled Japanese fans. And when Gundam SEED Destiny came out, it just got funnier.
 * Japanese Gundam fandom managed to flesh out the vague references in the original Mobile Suit Gundam and create a proper UC time line, which was adopted by Sunrise.
 * This video. Master Asia would be proud.