The Vampire Diaries/Awesome

In "Bloodlines", Damon saving Elena after she crashes her car into a vampire. This also overlaps with Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
In "Let The Right One In", Damon killing God knows how many vampires on his own as payback for torturing Stefan.
Stefan + deadpan expression + flamethrower = awesome.
When Elena tried to fight off her first vampire in "Unpleasantville" by stabbing him with pencils and attempting to stake him with a mop handle. She may have been rescued by Damon and Stefan in the end, but at least she wasn't helpless like another vampire's girlfriend.
In "Memory Lane", Katherine officially becomes a Magnificent Bitch when she reveals she's built up a tolerance to vervain over the last century and a half, and has only been pretending to be weakened for a whole day just to screw with Stefan.
- Her final scene in "Plan B," revealing she's known all along that Elena and Stefan were faking their rift thanks to using Jenna as an unknowing informant, after which she makes Jenna stab herself over a long distance, and effortlessly moves on to make another werewolf after Mason's death. Basically, at this point, she's hurt if not outright destroyed every single major character without even breaking a sweat.
In "Kill Or Be Killed", Mason, a werewolf, has Elena by the throat. He tells Caroline he can kill her before Caroline can get to him.

Caroline: I can take you.
Mason: Wanna bet?
Caroline: Yeah. I do. *commence Curb Stomp, leaving Mason on the ground* Told ya.

- And the part a minute later where she kills out two cops with guns in about 30 seconds without getting a scratch... Also kinda disturbing...
The episode "Masquerade" has several Crowning Moments of Awesome:
- Lucy gets one in her very first appearance, being the one to defeat Katherine even while staying within the letter of her life debt to her.
- Caroline manages to fool Katherine into walking into a trap set for her by the others, then breaks up the fight between Tyler and Matt by pushing them away from each other.
Elijah ripping out two vampire's hearts at the same time, destroying a window with just a handful of coins, compelling Slater to stake himself....anything he does, really.
- His Villainous Rescue of Damon by killing four werewolves singlehanded, including punching one in the face so hard that his neck breaks.
- He manages to have one in "Daddy Issues" without even appearing on screen when he sends his warlock to save everyone from the werewolves.
- He slaps the, as of that point in the show, second oldest (to him) vampire's HEAD. OFF.
In "The Dinner Party", Alaric kills Elijah, but because he and Damon remove the dagger, Elijah comes back and goes after Elena, telling her that their deal is off. She tells him that they're renegotiating, or she'll stab herself and, after Stefan has her drink his blood to heal her, kill herself, leaving Elijah with no doppelganger for the ritual. He calls her bluff, so she really DOES stab herself. And then, once she has his word that her loved ones will be safe, she stabs him with the dagger, killing him.
- Katherine's Batman Gambit to trick Damon into killing Elijah, thus freeing her from the tomb.
In "The House Guest", Damon fights off a psychic witch attack with a flamethrower. And earlier in the episode, he makes Katherine genuinely afraid by pointing it at her.
- After pining over the completely undeserving Katherine for so long, it's pretty damn satisfying to see Damon coldly reject her attempt to seduce him.
In "The Last Dance", Damon and Bonnie's Batman Gambit to fake Bonnie's death, including telling no one else about it to be sure it's believable.
In "The Last Day", Damon rescues Caroline and Tyler and kills Klaus' witch, then brags to Klaus that he can't do his ceremony, which requires killing a vampire and a werewolf that very night as a witch casts a spell. Klaus calmly reveals that he has spares of all three. Chalk up another Magnificent Bastard.
In "End of the Affair", Sheriff Forbes and Tyler rescuing Caroline from her father.
In "Disturbing Behavior", Damon and Caroline's exchange during their fight:

Damon: I'm stronger than you.
Caroline: Yeah, well, I'm angrier than you.

- Katherine impersonating Elena to get her hands on Rebecca's necklace, perfectly reversing the Badass Decay she'd suffered since Klaus' arrival.
In "Ghost World", Caroline's Hold the Line against the tomb vampire ghosts to protect Mrs Lockwood, until Bonnie can send them back.
Elena through basically the whole of "Smells Like Teen Spirit", including her pretty convincing fake drunkenness, determination to train herself to fight vampires, and particularly in her exchange with Stefan at the end, in which she says that she still has hope for his humanity and that it makes her strong and not, as he claims, pathetic. Then she stabs him in the stomach, leaving him winded, and walks off with her head held high. The expression on Stefan's face suggests that even he is impressed.
Katherine impersonating Elena through "Homecoming", then getting back up after being stabbed by Mikael and knocking out Klaus' hybrids with a pair of wolfsbane grenades and a cheerful "Ba-boom!"
In "The New Deal", Jeremy's utterly cold and no-nonsense dispatching of the hybrid who almost ran him over.
In "The Ties That Bind", Elena managing to free her wrists from being tied behind her back and smacking Jamie in the face with his own shotgun.
- Elijah coming back and ripping out a hybrid's heart, spooking Klaus in the process.
In "Do Not Go Gentle", Elena calling Esther out on her vile actions and shooting down her every attempt to justify them. For an instant, Esther actually seems chastened and offers Elena an assurance that Jenna is at peace instead of being trapped on the Other Side like any other vampire's spirit.
In "Before Sunset", Tyler coming to Elena's aid, finally calling Klaus out on his crap and refusing to be "his little bitch" anymore -- followed very shortly by Stefan, Tyler, Damon, Bonnie, and Jeremy all working together to finally defeat Klaus by desiccating him.

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