8-Bit Theater/Awesome

• Black Mage: Becoming ruler of Hell and stabbing his personal demons in the back of the head.
  • Ehh.. Absorbing his DUPLICATE (it was supposed to be evil. turns out that he's about as evil as you get.) and than using its power to feed his ego (and coincidentally do a lot of damage) might top it.
    • And then using said evil to re-kill the Fiends, absorb their evil, and create black tendrils
  • This troper can not believe no-one stated this so far! I mean, who'd believed Hadoken is fueled by LOVE!!! Not to forget all the other moments, BM used it to do incredible things... as missing a volcano. But... k, the ruler of hell thing was good as well.
  • A moment of deeper emotions is this letter to white mage, though it makes him even harder to understand than anything he does before or after. Maybe there's some kind of... human being deep within him. This earlier one makes the thought not easier.
  • Telling the 8BT equivalent of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and theoretically the most evil corporeal entities (barring the obvious) known to exist, to "...shut the GODDAMN HELL UP."
  • Obstacle course? What obstacle course?
  • Killing Spartans' Captain Ersatzes and making them look like idiots at the same time.
  • Comic 1123. I have no clue what the hell he's doing, but it's Awesome.
    • He's using his power to Flash Step and stick knives in all the Fiends. Then absorbing all of their evil (just like he did to his doppleganger at the Castle of Ordeals).

Black Mage: "Oh, come on. You three know I'm the most powerful one here. I'll prove it. Choose one of them."
Thief: "We don't have time for this, BM."
Black Mage: "No, you know what? Forget it. I'll choose and I pick all of them."
Fighter: "Black Mage, you can't!"
Black Mage: "Oh, yes. I can."

• • 1136. The first, and thus far only, Blackjack...automatic natural 21 Dark Hadoken...known to exist.
    • And he's the only person to ever (attempt to) break a Stable Time Loop with the power of raw, unfiltered evil. "I never knew it was possible to care less about time travel." While it didn't actually work, it was still a pretty damn awesome. And with Onion Kid out of the picture, the Light Warriors can attempt to trick out time.
  • Comic #1166 A CMOA for BM and RM successfully working together and distracting Sarda.

RM: It's just a distraction.
Sarda: From?
BM: ME!.

• • • You really think that worked? Have you read the rest of the comic?
      • Let's look at this: they're actually working together. They're going toe-to-toe with Sarda and they're going down swinging. Considering the power discrepancy, that's impressive. If they fail, but their last words are a Facing the Bullets One-Liner, rather than pleading for their lives, that would count for something. And if they win...
        • Aaaaaaaand they didn't, however it looks like they just pissed him off
    • Two words: Phlebotinum Overload
  • Another in that vein: Whether or not it works, you have to admit, using every spell known as a distraction is pretty awesome. For once, yes: the mere fact that he thought of it makes Red Mage awesome. In addition...well, see below.
  • Without even really trying, Black Mage once again screws over Sarda aka the former Onion Kid. How? Black Mage's sheer evil overloads Sarda and turns him into a portal for Chaos. It's awesome in a very scary way.
  • Waaaaay back: vicious mutated sea monsters are targeting Bikke's ship in the middle of the ocean. Black Mage gets fed up with the situation, resulting in this
  • "Damn, but you Goth freaks like to hear yourselves talk."
• The following is definitely in the running for a CMOA for Red Mage and Black Mage: http://www.nuklearpower.com/2009/08/29/episode-1166-the-wizards-that-did-it/.
• Red Mage: Killing a random encounter with logic and slaying Ur.
  • There's also Ice 9. For one thing, it's the first time we get to see Red Mage implement a plan that works perfectly instead of failing hilariously. (He did manage to save everybody's lives with Noodle Implements once before that, but it happened in between strips.) Also, it's...ahem...very cool.
  • For this troper, it's Red Mage verbally shutting down Thief when he insults humanity one too many times. The master of arrogant manipulation is speechless after that.
  • I thought that it was cool when Red Mage pulls the hadoken out of his arse, and the graphic in the strip didn't hurt. HADOYASTOPTHIS?!
  • Using Exit on White Mage to get her away from Black Mage, and trying to stop him after his defeated both Fighter, and Thief, and as a result, being the only one standing up to BM. And with the balls-of-cold-steel to insist he's able to do so. Considering he's a mime, he may very well be right.

BM: Don't tell me, you think you can fight back, right?
RM: Yeah, I do.

• • • White Mage went on to build a new team and defeat Chaos, making Red Mage indirectly responsible for saving the world.
  • Red Mage gets one for foreshadowing Sarda's Phlebotinum Overload when he claims that Sarda channeling his own magic, the four elemental orbs, AND Black Mage's evil power couldn't possibly exist. In this one case, Red Mage was smarter than Sarda.
  • Credit should be given to the fact that RM found a (cartoon)logical way to actually leave the universe just to be out of the range of Sarda.
• For both Red Mage and Fighter: Glorious Chainsaw Method.

Red Mage: Should have probably told Black Mage to get out of the way first.

(later) Fighter: Guys? I ran out of dragon.

• Fighter: "Sword chucks, yo".
  • This troper would like to nominate this as another moment for Fighter. Especially since it's one more twist of the knife in Black Mage's side.
  • Don't forget the first Fiend battle with Lich where he goes into an Unstoppable Rage after a brief Heroic BSOD when Black Mage is killed by Lich.
  • Another Moment for Fighter here, awesome not only because he has the Reality Warper and the Magnificent Bastard all but voiding themselves at the prospect of fighting him, but he does it with nothing but words.
  • And he does it again here.
  • And again. There are no words. None.
  • Drownball ... just ... Drownball.
  • Not to mention the fact that he won at Drownball. By default, as he was the only one who survived the drowning, but still. He won at a sport where the whole point is to die, by living.
  • "Okay, you know you can't actually stop me?" "I'll try."
  • Taking advantage of the fact that it's Not the Fall That Kills You Fighter blocks the Earth and does it for his entire team.
    • The way I figure it, the fall doesn't kill you. The ground does. So I blocked it.
• Thief: Pretty much every time he opens his mouth.

Black Mage: Wah?! When did you get to class change?

Thief: Hm? Oh, I stole it. From the future.

• • Also, this. Not even sub-par powers get in the way of Thief's awesome.
  • But especially this.

Red Mage: Why is it that your brand of truth inevitably involves obfuscation and lies?
Thief: Because I'm Thief.

• Just how thoroughly Thief screws over his team mates is always astounding.
• And this.
  • Succesfully outwitting a trickster god. Just keep hitting next.

Raven: How did you find out?
Thief: I only suspected it until you confirmed it for me just now.
beat
Raven: Oops...

• • Oh I steal souls and secrets
  • Joint for Red Mage and Thief: Red Mage and Thief... actually act like honest-to-god, non-stupid, non-subverted, heroes.
• White Mage's alternate solution to Red Mage's plan to defeat Kari, here.
• Despite appearing very infrequently, Sarda, The Wizard Who Did It, beats out even Thief in Awesome Moments. His endless and imaginative ways of screwing over the protagonists are too numerous to list individually, but this one deserves special mention, to due use of the power of reading.
  • He tops that one earlier, breaking the Fourth Wall in the process, by rewriting Black Mage's speech bubbles. Just before sending him to Hurt.
    • • And dropping Australia on him. THE ENTIRE FREAKING CONTINENT.
    • And then he does it again. And then Black Mage tries to turn it back against him, except it doesn't take.
      • When Sarda casts a spell to hurt you, and you learn that spell, you learn to cast a spell that hurts you.
  • And right after saving Onion Kid from Ranger's quad-wielded bows: Do you know the best thing about magic? Everything.
    • THE ONION KID IS SARDA! HOLY SHIT.
      • The above spoiler gets even more extravagant when you realized Brian seems to have planned it from the beginning. (obviously the link can spoil this for you, btw).
    • Recently, he just reversed the Light Warriors' class changes.
    • Except Thief's. Read on to see why.
• Black Belt: Too bad about the messy ending to the moment, here.
• Garland is usually a ridiculous softie of a villain. Eventually, his band of evil adventurers decide to mutiny against him. At a meeting that Garland himself caters. After the minions eat his special tacos, Garland proceeds to list the reasons why the mutiny will fail and reveals that the tacos were stuffed with Amnesia Peppers. Not bad for a guy who was once bullied by the princess he had kidnapped.
• Even 8-Bit's creator, Brian Clevinger, manages to get some of his own:
  • This is "Episode #1129: THERE" (published in mid-May 2009), and this is "Episode #434: Wouldn't You Like to Know?" (published in late June of 2004). The fact that he planned out a strip five years in advance is either insane or awesome...probably a little of both.
  • The fact that he planned out the Onion Kid's rise as Sarda, which is caused by the entirety of the subsequent comic over nearly a decade's time. Holy shit. Brian Clevinger, you Magnificent Bastard.
  • Remember Thief's line about stealing his class change from the future? Well, three years and 500 strips later, we find out precisely where he stole it from. Yet another Crowning Moment for Brian Clevinger.
    • Although somewhat sucky for Thief himself...
  • March 20, 2001: It'll never work. Cut to February 20, 2010 (nine years and 1214 strips later): Okay, maybe it will.
    • The latter strip also doubles as White Mage's ultimate Crowning Moment of Awesome.
    • Actually, the early dates are inaccurate because the comics were not organized by date prior to November 2003; 8BT really started in January 2001. All this does is make the longest Brick Joke ever more impressive by a scant few months.
• Bikke has been consistently portrayed as the dumbest of the Dark Warriors. But he and the other Dark Warriors manage to capture the Elemental Orbs, which would allow them to take over the world. However, Sarda confronts them, and asks them if they even know how to use them. After a beat panel, Bikke throws his into nigh-omnipotent Sarda's face. Considering Sarda has stopped arrows firing from bows at point blank range mid flight, we may have stumbled into Sarda's weakness. Or just Rule of Funny. Either way.
  • Even better is that this actually impresses Sarda, specifically that Bikke is "a quick thinker and spiteful," convincing Sarda to let the pirate live.
    • Though because Sarda is also spiteful, nigh-omnipotent, and incredibly creative in the ways he screws people, it may not be as good for Bikke as you'd like to think.
• The unnamed wizard shopkeeper who kicked Black Mage's ass offscreen.

Black Mage (after said ass-kicking): What I learned today is that really old wizards don't get that way by being easy to kill.

• Why is it that no one has mentioned Black Mage's first Hadoken?

BM: The giant's gone, ain't he?

• For anyone who dislikes Thief, seeing him get mauled by Berserker not once but twice is very satisfying.
• The ending. Period.
• The thing about summoning "true guardians" is that it tends to take a bit longer than a fatal mob stabbing. For once, the entire party was united, looking badass, and clearly holding the advantage.