Black Lagoon/Awesome

Sister Yolanda: Eda! What have I told you about drinking inside the chapel?
Eda: Ah! Sister -

Sister Yolanda:We'll talk later! First things first...we'll deal with these nonbelievers the same way we dealt with the people of Bethshemesh.

—Greenback Jane, part 1 (yes, she does wield that one-handed)

• Revy had already been set up as a maniac Guns Akimbo Dark Action Girl early in Black Lagoon but the moment that clearly established her true level of badassness was when Dutch casually asks her to take on several boats full of heavily armed pirates. By herself. Leaping from one to the other while they're bouncing along at high speed. Rock can only stare in shocked disbelief as she wipes out the entire fleet, finishing off the last one with a grenade from an M79 grenade launcher as it tries to get away.
  • Basically everything Revy does is emblematic of this trope.
• Rock himself actually got one or two. His first was his deft negotiation with the Church of Violence, netting Lagoon Company the entirety of their requested items and showing that he was just as dangerous as anyone else on the crew, merely in a different way. His second was just a few minutes later, standing up to Revy, verbally tearing her to shreds, and proving that he had more spirit and determination than anyone up to that point had ever given him credit for.
  • This troper would argue that Rock got his first Crowning Moment of Awesome in the second episode, when he comes up with the plan for torpedoing a battle helicopter mid-air -- which is then pulled off, with Rock giving the helicopter the finger with a smile as the Lagoon sails on by. "You got FUCKED!"
    • This sentiment is echoed by Rock's VA, Brad Swaile, who claims this line to be his favorite in the series.
    • This is followed by Dutch's great line: "Amen, Hallelujah, and peanut butter." Both a Crowning Moment of Awesome and a Crowning Moment of Funny.
  • Also, during Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise, when he has the stones to stand up to Balalaika.
    • "There are two things to remember when you're begging for your life; one is to entertain the person who hold the gun, the two is to give them enough reason to be convinced. Now, you don't have fullfiled any of this two yet. Now, dance! What obligation do I have to save you?" "...You're mistaken. It's not an obligation. "Justice" is just means. I only have one reason: It's MY HOBBY." "Hobby?" "Yeah. If some folks enjoying dying in gutter, there also people with hobby like mine. I'm just the same with you."
    • A banter of Hannibal Lecture.
      • Another one during Fujiyama is when he makes Chaka slip on the floor with cleaning fluid and then proceeds to bash the asshole in the head. With a bowling pin and a Precision F-Strike: "Fuck you!"
      • And who could forget the time he defended himself from Sawyer the Cleaner's three-foot long chainsaw with a metal shelf?
  • Then there's the time he managed to piss Revy off mid-diatribe and, when asked what he wanted on his tombstone, replied very calmly, "There's no cure for a fool with a gun." And then, just as she fires, he shoves the gun out of the way and only gets grazed, showing his words actually had a point.
  • Also in the manga when he comes up with the idea to sink a huge ship using C4 and a harpoon gun.
  • As well as his Xanatos Gambit used to stop the the unstoppable Roberta's rampage in El Baile de La Muerte.
• Roberta, an ex-FARC-agent-turned-maid, is basically the Terminator. But this is cemented when, after having busted out her shotgun umbrella on a group of thugs, she turns to them, curtsies...and lets a dozen or so grenades fall from her petticoats. Outside, the Lagoon crew watch the bar explode. Minutes late, backlit by flames...Roberta emerges, unscathed.
  • The El Baile de La Muerte manga arc shows provides her with several Moments of Awesome, but the cake goes to the time where she stops Sawyer the Cleaner and promptly destroys her Chainsaw using her gun barrel. Then kicks Rotton the Wizard in the balls, through his groin protector, and she makes little Fabiola cringe in fear simply by talking to her about their master. And in the start of that scene, she catches Shenhua's throwing blade, and SNAPS IT WITH HER TEETH (while wearing a Slasher Smile from hell)! Eat your gun out, John Rambo Terminator!
    • And we thought that was the best (or worst) of her.... watch until she arrives in Golden Triangle. To cut it short, she took out the whole army of Golden Triangle warlords with nothing but a musket and flintlocks. Yes. You read it. MUSKET AND FLINTLOCKS. In MAID DRESS.
      • Of course that Musket & Flintlocks is actually modified & loaded with SABOT rounds, capable of burning through body armor & steel like a hot knife through butter, but that just increase Roberta's awesomeness. HOW'S THAT for improvisation??!!
  • What, no mention of the fact that in Chapter 15 of the El Baile de La Muerte she fires a Barrett M82 sniper rifle with attached grenade launcher ONE-HANDED? REPEATEDLY?!!! If that's not badass, I don't know what is.
    • • • Now, now, we can't forget about Miss Fabiola Iglesias herself. She may not be on Roberta's level, but when she gets out of being held down by boot-knifing a guy in the balls, then cleaning out the bar in the same manner Roberta did before casually pulling a grenade launcher out the back of her dress (and even Revy had to ask "the FUCK is that?!" at this point) and blowing the reinforcements and their .50 caliber machine gun to hell. Not bad considering this was her FIRST real battle.
• Balalaika gets hers when she "deals" with Hansel. This troper first thought the couple would be another "super human terminator," but was delighted by the fact that Balalaika simply did her Shut UP, Hannibal to Hansel's Ax Crazy talk and signaled her sniper to blow his extremities off. And watched him die. "I said 'KNEEL!'"
  • This Troper considered it a Crowning Moment because of the reaction Balalaika had while Hansel was dying. She didn't express any sympathy for the twins, but... "You don't even understand, do you? ... I'm... feeling a bit tired." Balalaika is a Badass for sure, even when she's not actively kicking it.
  • Or when she stops Revy and Roberta from continuing their fight to the death, prompting Dutch to say that the three scariest women on the face of the Earth were in a confrontation and he had no desire to get in the middle of it.
  • Or her confrontation with the leader of the Washimine-gumi. He attacks her; she easily grabs him, tells him -- with a smile -- that yeah, they could cooperate, but that is for pencil pushers; she just wants to rule. Then she snaps his neck, thus putting any lingering doubts about her evilness to rest.
• Hansel and Gretel themselves have many moments that would be listed on this page if the awesomeness weren't trumped by the Nightmare Fuel aspect. I mean, they're Blood Knights who do in fact, casually and giggling, take out a bar full of people without breaking a sweat, including some of the above-mentioned Balalaika's men (who, you recall, could fight and win World War III), and almost any other pair of people who sound turned on by the idea of everyone coming to kill them would be on this page, not to mention their successful Batman Gambit to divert almost all of the bounty hunters...the fact that they're maybe ten at the oldest transforms the awesome into freaky, though.
  • There's also them taking on an entire room filled with armed gang members and winning. Shortly afterward, Gretel has a brief gunfight with Mr. Chang, with both of them emerging unharmed (unless you count the deaths of Mr. Chang's men and his car).
• Ginji Matsuzaki. Slicing bullets. Revy was still talking about this, hours later, sounding impressed, and the only reason Jumbo doesn't have more mention is because the mere idea of trying to list every single one of his Crowning Moments would make Your Head Asplode.
  • Of a lesser mention, the head of the Washimine group having the titanium balls to go after Balalaika with nothing but a sword. Yes, he failed, but seeing him trying to go down fighting was quite awesome.
• Revy killing Torch.

Revy: You're a rocket man, baby!

• Eda gets hers in the manga, when she becomes the first character to really make Mr. Chang lose his cool.

Eda: "Don't underestimate my organization, street trash!"

• It's combined with Mood Whiplash and Crowning Moment of Funny but let's hear it for Rotton, distracting Roberta long enough that she DOESN'T shoot Shenhua and Sawyer to death.
• In the omake where everyone's telling ghost stories Rock's story was the one that scared everyone. INCLUDING HANSEL AND GRETEL. It also frightened Balalaika so much that she asks Boris to accompany her to the bathroom.
• The Gray Foxes deserve a spot here for not only surviving all Roanapur could throw at them and more, but also being the only thing in the series to hurt Roberta in significant fashion.