Heroes (TV series)/Awesome

• HRG turning the clichéd Click. "Hello." into an awesome Kill Hello on Thompson.

Thompson: "What am I thinking now, Parkman?"
HRG: "Your last thought..."

• • HRG is one walking, talking, bespectacled Crowning Moment of Awesome:
    • Having Parkman fatally shoot Claire, his own daughter, because he knows she'll regenerate, so that Ted doesn't kill anyone else...
    • Having the Haitian erase his own memories about Claire leaving home just so The Company can't find her.
    • Staging an elaborate trap to reveal Mohinder's defection to The Company, simultaneously capturing Bob's lightning-tossing daughter...
    • Short-circuiting said lightning-tossing daughter to keep her under his control...
    • The entirety of the episode "Cautionary Tales," actually.
    • And "Company Man," for that matter.
    • Beating Parkman's telepathy by thinking in Japanese.
    • This troper was cheering internally when he HRG was locked up, as Elle was fishing for information about her childhood, she threatens him to hurt him, an he oesn't even flinch.

Elle: "I can MAKE you talk"
HRG: "You can TRY"

• In the Season One finale, Claire gets her own Crowning Moment of Awesome when she jumps out a 10th-story window to get away from her grandmother. Five words: "I already have a family."
  • And crashing the rapist quarterback's car into a brick wall - with him in the passenger seat:

Brody: Nothing you can do about it.
Claire: I can do this! (smashes car full speed into solid wall)

• • • of course Noah Bennet having the Haitian Mind Rape him is far cooler and a fittingly ironic punishment. He violated people physically and was violated mentally in return.
  • Not to mention decking Jackie after she calls Zach gay.
  • And in the same episode, Claire standing up and regenerating after being thrown against a locker by Sylar.
  • None of these Claire CMOAs holds a candle to the way she stepped up in "Company Man" and singlehandedely stopped a nuclear situation. She went from The Chick and The Woobie, to total Badass.
  • She has two in "Dual":
    • First, she threatens to kill Sylar for putting them in a Saw-like death trap, to which he taunts from the phone--

Sylar:From cheerleader to stone cold killer. Who's the monster now?
Claire: (fires the phone with a shotgun) You are.

• • • Towards the end, she jams a gigantic shard to glass into his brainstem while he was ranting to Angela. This is the only way to arrest a regenerator's power. Sadly, it doesn't stick.^[1]
  • Then there's the way she takes out Doyle. Amazingly enough, unlike most of the characters Claire actually became BETTER over the course of Season 3, finally becoming less WANGST-y and more bad ass and cool.
  • Stowing away on a plane and freeing all the other heroes in "A Clear & Present Danger." Claire's Badass status is no longer in doubt.
  • "You can listen to me now, or I can tell you after you shoot me."
  • And her stabbing Sylar in the eye with a pen. Of course it doesn't actually kill him, but from the sound of it had to hurt like hell, and it gave her time to escape.
• Adam and Hiro's duel at the end of the "Feudal Japan" storyline. Just a pity the writers made their rematch such a dud.
  • Speaking of Adam, the effortless way he dupes Peter, murders the creator of the Shanti Virus and then proceeds to massacre the guards at Primatech with effortless sword skill is a long crowning moment of awesome for the character. Not surprising he was one of only two that the audience really took to in season 2
• Sylar gets plenty of these moments, but the absolute best comes from the episode "Parasite", where he's tied to a chair, his powers neutralised, Mohinder has a gun pointed at him, fires at point blank and he stops the bullet right in front of his face. "I wasn't begging for my life. I was offering you yours". Mohinder's Oh Crap expression that followed merely solidified how utterly screwed he was.
  • Another one is at the finale of Season Two, when Sylar gets this wonderful expression on his face right before he shoots Maya. Too bad she gets resurrected.
  • Dale, a one-shot character, to Sylar: "That sound, in your heart... What is it?" "Murder." Blackout.
  • How about Volume 3: "Aren`t you going to eat my brain or something?" "Claire, that`s disgusting."
  • Hell, The entire first half of the episode where Sylar just stalked Claire from the shadows in her own house. I`m back Mother&%$/?!s
  • Sylar, as of Volume 3, would appear to be a walking Crowning Moment of Awesome.
    • "You drink decaf, right?"
  • And perhaps the greatest of all, stopping Peter's bullet from killing Arthur, and then sending it in himself. "You're not a killer, Peter, but I am."
    • And of course, killing him a way that prevents him from cracking his head open. Methinks maybe Sylar just prefers his own method of power-stealing
    • Following his latest Face Heel Turn (Or was it Heel Heel Turn?), Sylar has been reinstated in his role as Mr Pure Awesome. For example, when he had the Human Lie Detector pinned to the wall...

Sylar: Shh, it's not going to hurt a bit.
SFX: Human Lie Detector tone.

Sylar: (amusedly) Got me. That's a lie.

• • • Right after that, the one word CMOA: 'Cake?'
    • Don't forget the elevator scene shortly later. Sylar is calmly wiping his completely bloody arms together as another man stares at him in horror. Sylar turns to the man and nonchalantly says, "What?" or something similar. Awesome.
      • That moment was far more awesome but a little backtracking is needed. Earlier Sylar had asked said Human Lie Detector whether detecting lies feels like a tingle. Then in the elevator:

Sylar: Is something wrong?
Horrified Bystander: ...no.
Sylar (to himself): heheh, it does kind of tingle.

• • • In volume 4 his confrontation with his dying father gives him a CMOA toward the end. He elcts not to kill his father, even though he's done so many evil things in his life, deciding that a slow death from cancer is a more fitting punishment.
      • Even better, Sylar feigns weakness in front of his father dangling the carrot of immortality all to get his father to be honest about what HE would do in Sylar's position. Sylar knew there was only one way to get a straight answer from his psycho dad. Note, because of his regenerative abilities, Sylar could have easily given his father immortality without having to die.
    • The way he casually knocks Nathan's Nazi goons around like ragdolls througout Volume 4, showing that while Danko may be a bad ass compared to some, against the real deal like Sylar he's still a nobody. Or to quote Xykon...One gets to be the butch, and one gets to be the bitch, Bitch."
  • How can we forget faking his death to become President of the United States with the goal of systematically slaughtering every other evolved human in the country so that he can become the undisputed (and once he takes Claire's power, unkillable) single most powerful person on the planet? And he would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those meddling kids.
  • In spirit form, pulling a Grand Theft Me on Parkman by spending a whole night making Parkman think he was getting Sylar out of his head by drinking.
  • An extremely elegant slam of Magnificent Bastard Mama Bear Angela Petrelli in "Thanksgiving":

Sylar: And you...You have raised the evil incarnate bar to an entirely new level. Thank you for giving me something to strive for.

• • Tricking Claire into discussing a possible solution to Sylar's emotional issues with Gretchen. "Now, was that so hard?"
• Arthur had his own CMOA when he took Hiro's power (though he already had it anyway) AND the precious catalyst -- just in time. Too bad he didn't get to enjoy that satisfaction long, as per above.
• D.L. brain-punching Mr. Linderman.
• Anything Matt Parkman does with relation to Maury. Especially during their confrontation in "Out of Time."
• Isaac's death scene. He turned getting your head sliced open by a serial killer into an art form. Then again, he is an artist.
• Hiro or Ando:
  • The scene where Sylar challenges Hiro to stop time before he can cut off Ando's head. And Hiro does.
  • Hiro stabbing Sylar through the chest later in the episode.
  • Ando knocking the security guard threatening Hiro unconscious.
  • Ando's ridiculous but incredibly courageous decision to go after Sylar on his own.
  • Ando's improvising of a new plan to take down the Haitian, knocking him out. Sure, it turned out terribly, but it was still awesome.

Hiro: What are you doing?!
Ando: I'm being awesome!

• • Subverted when Hiro tries to "be badass" by stabbing Ando in the chest. Though he's only doing it to gain the villains trust...but damn.
  • Actually, the above was turned into yet another crowning moment. Hiro and Ando manage Faking the Dead without Hiro's signature time-freeze, and with Hiro coming up with the entire plan in less than a minute and breaking his "no backwards Time Travel" rule to pull it off.
  • Hiro gets one more in "The Eclipse" while Sylar and Elle has the Bennett family cornered. Just when Sylar is about to kill Noah, Hiro suddenly appears and teleports both villains elsewhere, all the while believing he's only 10 years old because of a mindwipe.
    • And of course, he just adds that extra dash of Badass by smirking at Sylar and quipping, "Bad man." right before taking him away.
  • Toying with Sylar even while dying of a tumor whose pain gets worse every time he uses his power, including a spaghetti western standoff. He eventually even gets Sylar to save Charlie's life
• Twisted, admittedly, but there was something cool about Mohinder shooting Noah in the eye, simply because he had the courage to actually take a life, even if said life got given back.
• Claude, much like HRG, is a walking Crowning Moment of Awesome. One example:
  • Peter tells Claude, after some Training from Hell, that "[he doesn't] have to do anything that [Claude says]". Claude's reply? "Except fly." Peter is then shoved off a skyscraper.
  • And then punching him to keep him from exploding.
• Peter himself is largely a bit of a whiny brat, but he does get one glorious turn in the spotlight: after struggling for some time to utlize the full extent of his powers under Claude's tutelage, the two of them are on a rooftop when Claude is shot with a taser by HRG from the next building over. HRG shoots at Peter, only for him to stop the prongs an inch from his body. After they fall harmlessly to the ground, he picks up the barely conscious Claude, who asks what he's doing. Peter replies "Something unexpected," and throws Claude off the roof, jumps off himself, catches Claude, and flies off with him.
  • This editor found Peter's crowning moment to be when he electrocuted Hiro via sword in the end of the second season. Not because Hiro was particularly annoying, but because Peter finally did something awesome and brutal instead of "sensitive."
    • Peter going to town on Sylar in the finale.
• This troper considers the fight between Peter and Sylar in Mohinder's place to start with a big CMOA for Peter. Sylar has him on the wall, slicing open his head. Peter regenerates, and just as Sylar gets the 'oh, son-of-a-' look, Peter lets rip with his own telekinesis and smashes Sylar through desks and into the wall - and finishes it with a sweet landing. Bad Ass.
  • For this troper, it's Mohinder coming out of nowhere to completely own Sylar at the end of that fight with a freaking CHALKBOARD. Mohinder doesn't get that many chances to demonstrate his Badass Normal credentials, but when he does, he does.
• When Nathan is kidnapped and cornered by HRG and the Haitian. HRG: "You've got nowhere to run." Nathan's response? He takes off into the sky (doubly awesome because Nathan has been trying to pretend that he doesn't have powers).
  • First season finale. Five words: "I'm not leaving you, Peter."
• Monica taking down the burglar at her restaurant.
  • Brutally subverted when she's kidnapped by a street gang - you expect the awesomeness, but it doesn't happen.
• Eden killing herself rather than letting Sylar take her powers.
• This troper personally thought that Linderman's calmness when Nathan held a gun to him in Parasite was a CMOA, particularly "Now you can't have any of my pot pie."
  • Dude, it's Malcolm freakin' McDowell. Everything he does is awesome.
    • But with that said, Linderman revealing his power. "What could you possibly know about healing?" "A few things." A flower is then resurrected.
    • Plus the callback when Hiro asks his father what he knows about sword fighting. Kaito shows off some killer moves and then deadpans "A few things."
• Niki Sanders reintegrating herself in the season one finale and using her now-under-control super strength to lay out the illusion-wielding Candice Wilmer with one punch. This troper cheered.
  • Also, beating up a gun-waving street thug--without her superpowers.
• Pretty much the entirety of the "Let's Beat Up Sylar" sequence from the Season One finale.
• Season 3.4 Future-Sylar Gabriel literally beating Knox to a pulp and becoming so enraged that he goes nuclear after Knox kills lil' Noah. This after it is implied that he has achieved a level of self control that would put most zen masters to shame. Beware the quiet ones indeed.
  • Nucleaaaaaar Pawwwwwwwwnch!!
• Sylar, a wanted serial killer pulls a Bavarian Fire Drill against the police in season three. Zachary Quinto is one of the only actors that can avoid being typecast without changing roles. It also doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny.

Sylar: "And get me some coffee. Decaff, no sugar."

• Peter had three of these in Homecoming.
  • Lacking any power other than being able to do what other powered people can do (only not as well and only when they are close), he travels half-way across the country in order to risk his life to save a complete stranger, knowing full well that he'll die in the attempt.
  • The entire talk he has with Claire, before he realizes she's the girl he came to save and basically tells her - as she is angsting over High School life - that things get better once you grow up and that the best is yet to come. It's a small thing but it neatly sums up Peter's character - that even in the midst of a big epic quest he'll do little things to try and make other people feel better.
  • Not pissing his pants when Sylar sent locker doors at him. The guy has telekinesis and Peter's reaction was to try and hold him off so Claire could escape.
  • Another was when Claire was escaping, Peter turned and found Sylar right there next to him. Instead of running or being paralyzed with fear, Peter ends up fighting him in a contest of pure strength on top of the bleachers. Without the aid of any powers, Peter manages to take Sylar down with him and crash into the ground, thus saving Claire. His healing as she went to see if he was okay just added to the moment.
• Sandra got one in "Dying In The Light", when she built up the nerve to not only accompany Claire after a rather scary villain, but to shoot Claire in order to defeat said villain. Even when you know your daughter is invincible, that takes courage.
  • Let's not forget, too...it didn't fire the first time...so she clicks three more times, before finally shooting her. To this troper, at least, it added a level of badassery to that scene altogether.
  • Her awesomeness continues into Volume 4, when she helps Claire and a random fugitive Hero named Alex escape from federal agents during the episode "Exposed". After chiding Claire for lying to protect her, she makes a fake ID for Alex, hides him in a air vent, lies absolutely straightfaced to the agents, then creates a pretty daring distraction to buy the dude enough time to escape from their house. Obfuscating Stupidity? Not really, it's just no one gives her a chance to show that she's just as Badass Normal as her husband to begin with.
• Hiro Nakamura set a new standard in pure awesomeness when he "allegedly" committed murder.
  • That's right, folks, it was so awesome that it gets mentioned twice!
• Peter had a great CMOA in Dying of the Light when Peter tackles Sylar, flies him down a hallway into a wall, and then beats the ever living crap out of Sylar, knocking him out and attaching him to the machine that had just earlier kept Peter in an induced coma.
• The Usutu also had an epic one in Dying of the Light. Hiro walks into his hut and sees a painting of Usutu hitting him over the head with a shovel. A few seconds later the Usutu does just that. When Hiro wakes up, he goes back in time to try to sneak up on Usutu when Usutu hits past-Hiro. While waiting behind a rock, he sees another painting of Hiro getting hit over the head with a shovel by the Usutu. Sure enough, Usutu appears behind him moments later and knocks Hiro out cold. This could also be a great example of Crowning Moment of Funny.
  • Note that Hiro, blacking out, watched African Eeye Sock walk into the hut and knock him out the first time.
• Sylar had a brief one when he saves Peter from an injection by flinging Mohinder and a scientist into the wall (killing the scientist) with his telekinesis and freeing Peter.

Peter:"You came for me!"
Sylar:"That's what brothers do. They look out for each other."

• Mohinder, in Volume 1, figures out that the "Zane Taylor" he's been traveling with is actually Sylar, his father's murderer. So how does a non-powered scientist fight a multi-powered psychopath? By pretending he's still clueless, drugging Sylar's chai, tying him to a chair, and hooking him up to an IV of brain-numbing curare so he can't use his powers. Then, so he can decode his father's research, Mohinder jams a huge frickin' needle into Sylar's spine, telling him:

Mohinder: You might actually do some good before you die.

• • Yes, even this very line turns into a CMOA for Sylar when he turns the tables later, as elaborated further up the page, but still.
• Episode 3x09, "It's Coming". Arthur Petrelli, possibly the most powerful man on the planet, has his hands on Hiro's head and is making him scream. Non-badass normal Ando responds... by shouting "Leave my friend alone!" and jumping at him.
  • Not to mention pulling an escape by using Hiro's teleportation power for him, by manually changing his catatonic friend's facial expression.
• Also in It's Coming: Peter, who's been stripped of all his powers, rescues Claire through sheer cleverness and guts.

Peter:"I don't need an army to kick your ass!"

• Noah, during The Eclipse: While everybody's powers are gone, he takes on Sylar and Elle, knocks them both out, and dislocates Sylar's arm by ripping it out of its socket!
  • Not to mention himslitting Sylar's throat.
  • This troper actually paid tribute to the above ass-kicking by making a poster about it.
• Mohinder beating the tar out of Flint during the Eclipse. And with only a microscope and his rapier wit.

Flint: "Did you really think I was that stupid?"
Mohinder: "Actually, I did." WHACK!

• Peter single-handedly storming a Haitian warlord's camp with an AK-47. Seriously, can he please stay a Badass Normal? He's so much more awesome this way.
• Hiro, after being dismissively insulted one too many times, apologizes--but in advance, for punching ice queen Tracy in the face and stealing the formula.
• From way back in 1.4: "Niki's not here right now."
• In "A Clear And Present Danger", the hunter gets in Mohinder's cab, pulls a gun and says "Just drive." Mohinder coolly responds "It's your dime." Then, when they get to where the hunter's team was waiting for them on the top of a car park's roof, well..when Mohinder put his hand on the cab door, I was hoping he'd rip it off and smack the crap out of the guy with it--and he did, and it was awesome, but I didn't expect Mohinder using it as a shield against gunfire before hauling ass. Whoa!
• Agent Simmons--a random Red Shirt--gets one in "Trust and Blood": Sylar's been horrifically torturing him for a day or so, including sticking his hands to a chair by impaling them with screwdrivers, and he still refuses to talk--even after Sylar starts going after innocents. And then, when Sylar's distracted, comes the real awesome: he frees himself by pulling the screwdrivers up, probably ruining his hands in the process, and still manages to grab his gun and, had Luke not intervened, would have killed Sylar. Damn kid.
• Awesome-ness for Luke though. He boils the guys BLOOD. That's hardcore.
• Well if we didn't already know Sylar was a badass...in "Building 26", he tells Luke a sob story about his Daddy Issues, and Luke gives up the address of Sylar's father's place, believing that he and Sylar have connected, and that now Sylar won't you know, kill him, as per his usual style. Then the diner they are in is swarmed with the guys who are hunting Sylar, and Luke does some brilliant improv to get himself and Sylar out...and Sylar leaves him behind! Cold, hearltess badass, you might think, but it gets better. Sylar then comes back and kills a van full of guys, escaping with a briefcase in hand and Luke over his shoulder. Didn't See That Coming. At all. This troper nearly peed her pants, she was geeking out so thoroughly.
• Doubles as a crowning moment of heartwarming. Unless the writers screw up AGAIN and have Sylar kill Luke, ruining the entire dynamic.
  • Thankfully Sylar did not, as Sylar fights back the hunger and, while angry at Luke for lying to him, spares his life. That's THREE times Sylar has chosen not to kill Luke/leave him to die. I'm sorry to come off as a slash fangirl but it has GOTTA be true love. (Hey, don't look at me that way! Luke's already clearly checked Sylar out in one scene, so at least HALF of the pairing is supported by canon!)
• When Noah is in the bar at the end of "Cold Wars", passes out because of some drug put into his drink, and then Peter, Mohinder, and Parkman casually walk up and take him away. That was slick.
  • That was a drug? I thought Parkman just put him to sleep, hidden in the shadows across the bar.
    • It was a Call Back to Volume 1 when Bennet drugged Matt's drink and kidnapped him. Turnabout is fair play.
• Matt and Peter using tag-team Jedi-Mind-Trickery to force their way into the government headquarters during "Exposed". Made even more awesome with Matt's smug nod to the security camera; the people on the other end can't do much about it because he's brainwashed two armed agents to hold the entire Mission Control at gunpoint inside their command center. Go Team Psychic!
  • Matt and Peter as the Venture Brothers mental image FTW!
• Linderman gets one of these along with a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming when he heals Angela's mind, showing her Arthur's true colours. Forever cemented Linderman, in this troper's mind, as the Magneto of Heroes villains. Evil...but strangely loveable and very sympathetic.
• In the Graphic Novel's, Candice destroying an asshole jock's mind with illusions was pure win. And her holographic high school holocaust at the end of her origin story was also pure awesome.
• After straddling the morality line for her entire time on the show, Tracy finally makes her choice by buying time for Micah to escape and help everyone else...by freezing a whole parking lot full of soldiers and turning herself to solid ice in the process.
  • Ah, to Hell with it, the entire episode of "Cold Snap" was a CMoA. Angela eluding The Men in Black with only her wits and help from a son that she thought had estranged her long ago? Awesome. Ando finally getting an offensive power and Hadoken'ing a group of soldiers trying to capture them? Awesome. Hiro getting (at least part) of his powers back and carting his best friend and their new ward twelve miles to escape? Awesome, and "Awe-inducing" in another sense as well.
    • To say nothing of Matt and how he used his powers to give Daphne a fairy-tale ending just before she died. CMoA for him. CMoH for the whole scene.
    • And of course, the Tear Jerker episode is Bryan Fuller's triumphant return to the show's writing staff after Pushing Daisies turned out to be Too Good to Last.
    • Tracy's CMoA isn't complete until you mention the final close up on her shattered face and she blinks.
• I'm sorry, can we have a round of applause for Rebel/Micah? He has single-handedly organized a resistance against the government roundup efforts, made brilliant use of his technopathy, and he's only 12 years old!
  • That kid could rule the world if he wanted to. He's come a long way since Season one.
    • In addition in the Graphic Novels Micah forms his very own Super Hero team! He, Sparrow Redhouse, West and Abigail easily take down the government goons after them and from there are going to continue protecting specials from Nathans Nazis.
    • And on a simmilar note: In the latest GN Micah is kidnapped and tied to a chair by Thompson Jr, son of Noah's old boss, whose gone utterly crazy since his partner in the company died. He has Micah at gunpoint and wants to know where the woman who helped bring about his partners death is. Does Micah crack? NO: he commandeers a remote control crane and proceeds to smash it into the building, summons his team mates who kick Thompson's ass and then, just for an encore he puts Thompson's name on the worlds top ten most wanted lists. ALL to teach Thompson a lesson. And he does it all without even flinching. It's not surprising that he's formed the Heroes universe first official super team...Badass doesn't even begin to cover it
• In "1961", in a flashback set in, well, 1961, the teenage Charles Deveaux and Angela Petrelli are dancing in a diner. The manager stops - they don't allow interracial dancing. Deveaux (who is black) uses his powers to make him forget about it. Telepathy beats racism, every time.
• Speaking of telepathy, I love how, in "Turn and Face the Strange" Matt uses his powers to find the one person Danko actually cares about and force him to admit everything he's done to her. Then, he proves who the better man is by refusing to shoot Danko's girlfriend. This is why the good guys on Heroes Matt Parkman specifically is awesome.
• It may have been a bit of an Ass Pull, but it was worth it to see Danko's supreme Oh Crap face right after he stabs Sylar in the back of the head (the one place that could previously kill him permanently ) and he REGENERATES ANYWAYS.
  • Hell, the head-stab itself was the awesome part, taking down Sylar during his monologuing; the regeneration was just more of the same Joker Immunity.
  • It didn't seem like that much of an Ass Pull. It was already established that Sylar's new shapeshifting powers messed with his anatomy. I knew from the moment he got the power that the head stab wasn't going to cut it anymore. I think it will have to be decapitation and burn the body now.
• In the season finale, Peter completely owning Sylar in the very moment of his victory, and then striking a smug pose that was utterly perfect after three seasons of fighting Sylar without a clear winner.
  • "You didn't think I took that one from you, did you?"
• Elle's personal moment: electrocuting Sylar in "The Butterfly Effect" when he tries to cut her head open. Never mind that she also busted Level Five wide open and let all the other bad guys escape to wreak havoc and pain, this troper just couldn't get past the fact that she had singlehandedly beaten Sylar. It's hardly her fault they couldn't keep him there.
• Eric Doyle's Crowning Moment: "Dilman... we need to talk."
• Peter tags along with Noah to take on Edgar, a new speedster possibly-villain. After Peter initially gets the drop on Edgar, he just gets right back up and throws a knife at Noah's face, only for Peter to grab it right before it hits, revealing he now has the same power. He proceeds to take on Edgar in a super speed fight, and forces him to retreat.
  • What makes it even more awesome is that he basically challenged Darth Maul and Snake Eyes to a sword fight and won.
• Being played by T-Bag already had people anticipating awesomeness, and Samuel delivers when he's snubbed at the estate where his parents were servants. His response: create a sinkhole to destroy the house, dinner party and all.
  • And then he does it again to a Smug Snake populated police station.
    • I don't normally advocate psychopaths killing cops, but Samuel is currently my favorite character just for that. the cops deserved that. Oh so much.
    • This troper doesn't know which is more awesome, Samuel collapsing the police station, or the great Unflinching Walk that follows.
      • The Badass Longcoat only added to the already epic scene.
        • This troper was fully routing for Samuel by series end. He had the right idea of how to deal with humanity and keep his people safe.
• Matt forcing Sylar, who's controlling his body at the time, to get shot by a bunch of cops, fully aware that it will cause his own death too. Sure, no one in the audience bought that it would actually work, but the effort deserves recognition.
• Claire, in Thanksgiving: Do you think that THIS is going to blow over?
• Peter blocks all of Sylar's powers, and crucifies him with a nail gun before putting another nail into what's implied to be his groin, all to make him let Nathan's personality emerge again. This lets Sylar get his own when he's able to resist the pain, forcing Peter to bring Nathan out the hard way.
• Samuel gets a big one in Let It Bleed. Sylar comes to the circus to feast on its inhabitants. He first goes after Samuel. After pinning Samuel to the trailer and about to cut his head open, Samuel single-handedly stops the attack and defeats Sylar in a cyclone of sand, ripping his flesh apart.
  • Granted apparently something was wrong with Sylar, but still...
• HRG resolidifies his badassness by executing a textbook Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique on Edgar: "If it were up to me, you'd be down six fingers by now."
• From "Pass/Fail": Claire stabbing Sylar in the eye with a pencil.
  • The same episode, after Hiro decides to change his plea in the trial to "Guilty", Kaito hands him his sword, everyone steps aside to reveal Adam standing between Hiro and the way back to life holding the same sword. Awesome sword fight ensues.
  • “I’m done trying to change myself for you. Trying to fit into your world. Play by your rules. From now on, you’re all gonna play by mine.”
• From "The Art of Deception", Parkman reading Sylar's mind to find out what his worst nightmare is, trapping him in it, and if not for Peter showing up, he would have sealed the comatose Sylar behind a brick wall in his basement.
• Hiro teleporting for the first time in the first season. His victorious Ya-tah! Just is what CMOA is all about.
• The Volume Five season finale, Brave New World, is positively rife with CMOA's.
  • Tracy's Big Damn Heroes comeback as she saves Noah and Claire from the buried trailer.
  • Both Sylar and Eli making a legitimate Heel Face Turn.
    • It should be noted that Eli's Heel Face Turn was mostly due to Parkman, after hearing what Samuel planned to do from Peter reading Eli's mind.
  • Emma gets one in conjunction with Sylar's Heel Face Turn as he distracts Doyle enough for her to realize that her hands are free; she then knocks Doyle out with a blast of sound and light. Sylar proceeds to tie him up like a Christmas tree.
    • For, I believe, the second time
  • Ando showing that his supercharging power has not been forgotten as he and Hiro perform a mass teleportation.
  • Peter and Samuel engaging in a terrakinetic battle.
  • When Samuel loses his power due to the carnies leaving, he pathetically tries to punch Peter, who casually blocks it and punches back.
  • Samuel finally losing his cool after eighteen straight episodes of Magnificent Bastardry.
  • And best of all: Claire reveals the existence of specials by demonstrating her power on national TV, making what would have been the perfect cliffhanger for Volume 6 if the series had continued.
• Samuel murdering all the bigoted small town cops who had killed a young boy with powers. This troper was punching the air with joy when he killed them all
• While subjective, there was cheering at our house when it looked like this side of the Heel Face Revolving Door might stick and Sylar took down Doyle declaring "I'm a Hero!"
• Claire jabbing a pencil into Sylar's eye.
• When breaking into Pinehearst, Sylar finds a recently empowered Mohinder and is completely taken by surprised when Mohinder leaps through the air and beats the crap out of him.
• Sandra finally standing up to Noah about all that he'd put the family through. Even though it turned out to be Sylar in disguise.

1. ↑ Funny how the only one of the main characters to not play an active part in the Kirby Plaza fight against Sylar turned out to be the only one to do serious harm to him on several occasions!