Mobile Suit Gundam Wing/Awesome

• Relena's first Crowning Moment came in the school ball episode. Heero has her at gunpoint at school, but Relena barely blinks an eyelid and basically tells him: "You'd like to kill me, Heero? Try it. But let me warn you, it would be stupid to do so when everyone's at school and enjoying themselves... Shall we dance, instead?" She utterly and completely pwns him and even ropes the cold assassin into dancing with her. That requires balls, er, boobs.
  • Then, when Relena was "forced" to join Romefeller Foundation for the safety or Sanc Kingdom. Everyone thought that they had the Rebellious Princess under their thumb, and could finally use her for publicity and whatsnot. And Heero was ready to shoot her for this. Then Relena showed her High Queen in training ID and calmly made a speech about how they should abdicate war and promoting peace. In her first appearance in public, and knowing full well that Heero was ready to kill her right there. No wonder that the one who had her for this was completely dejected, and most members of Romefeller, touched by her speech, decides to stop their effort toward war.
  • Also, Relena gets one that overlaps with Tear Jerker and Crowning Moment of Heartwarming in the end of the series, when she refuses to kill Lady Une as punishment for her father's death, driving until then either bitchy or serene Une to tears.
• The Gundam Wing Zero, blowing up an entire space colony in one shot. Also a case of Nightmare Fuel.
• Also in the final arc of the series, there's a scene where Trowa is infiltrating the space fortress Libra. A pair of enemy soldiers emerge from a nearby hallway and start shooting at him. Trowa performs an incredible acrobatic jump, landing on a high catwalk a distance away... and then bows to the guys who just tried to kill him before running off.
• The entire setup of the Antarctica duel: Zechs is mad that OZ messed up his fair fight with Heero, so he defies orders to secretly rebuild the Gundam, has Noin locate the pilot, then brings him to a secluded base just so they can have their one-on-one uninterrupted. The fight itself is decently cool, but the real CMoA comes when OZ, having discovered Zechs' treachery, sends literally hundreds of mobile suits to capture everyone at the base. In order to buy time for everyone (including Heero, Trowa and Relena) to get away safely, he charges the entire OZ fleet solo, crying "Glory to the colonies!".
• The end of episode 41 is undeniably one of the high points of the series. Two moments stand out: post-amnesia Trowa saving Noin's ass and Zechs destroying the entire Barge station with Epyon's beam saber after the rest of his attack force has been wiped out.
• Quatre's CMOA comes in the series when he goes after the maddened Trowa who's using the Wing Zero and is driven mad by the Zero System. He knows too horrifyingly well the effects of the System, yet he doesn't hesitate to try de-brainwashing Trowa before he blows up the colony he wants to protect. And he succeeds.
  • He gets another late in the series when he manages to master the ZERO System on only his second usage of it AND gets the other Gundam Pilots to drop their "I work alone" attitudes in order to execute precision strategies, thwarting Dorothy and White Fang's own use of the System. Heero may be the protagonist, but Quatre is hands-down the Wing Team's leader.
    • For this troper, being of Middle Eastern descent, the fact that Quatre is supposed to be Arab, and defying every damn stereotype about the culture is a huge crowner for him and every Arab anime fan who wants to be a hero.
  • A scene not too long after Quatre and Heero escape to Earth after Quatre's Sanity Slippage and Quatre holds up several men at gunpoint with a machine gun. Sure, it's small and somewhat pointless, but considering Quatre is considered weaker than the other pilots, he's still pressuring the soldiers to surrender while holding a machine gun.
• Otto piloting the Tallgeese in a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Treize CMOA: taking the whole Federation by letting the Gundam Pilots "do their job".
  • Defeating Wu Fei in a sword fight, making the Arrogant Kung Fu Guy having it hard.
    • Which is then flipped on its head when Treize reveals during his duel with Wufei, who accuses him of being heartless, giving him a Shut UP, Hannibal by counting off the names of everyone who ever died for him. Seconds later, he jumps Wufei, only to be fatally stabbed. Cue Tear Jerker moment as Wufei gives a manly cry "I didn't think I'd win...".
• Treize challenge Zechs to a duel of honor. Zechs response: "NO. There's no honor in war." Then shoots Libra's BFG toward Treize. Also counts as CMOA for Treize, who had same goal with Zechs, ready to accept the blast, just to prove to the world how meaningless war it is.
  • Followed immediately by Lady Une finally waking from her coma, commandeering the Wing Gundam, and making it up to space just in time to make a Diving Save.
    • And props to Wing Gundam for SURVIVING A SUPERLASER TO THE FACE. Sure, it totaled the mech, but props the designers for pilot safety. Seriously.
• Action Girl Lucrezia Noin gets a more subtle one right after Heero pwns OZ by blowing himself and his Gundam up rather than surrender. When Lady Une is very pissed off and about to send OZ to attack the colonies anyway, Noin remarks on that. Une is about to bitchslap her into submission (which she did earlier in the episode, when Noin openly called her out on the plan), but Noin calmly blocks her slap and says "You certainly should be more graceful, Lady Une". This Troper was literally squealing for Noin right then, and still does whenever she watches the scene.
• Trowa uses the traveling circus act as a disguise to hide his Gundam, and reveals it during the show at a military base. Where he proceeds to destroy everything. Just as he is about to commit suicide with his Self-Destruct Mechanism, his sister slaps him out of it.
• Watching Mooks scream out "IT'S A GUNDAM!!" is both awesome and funny at the same time. The most notable example is the Deathscythe Hell's first battle where it proceeds to scare an OZ pilot shitless before wreaking havoc on all the others.

"The God of Death is back from Hell!"

• Lady Une freeing the Gundam pilots as well as her final speech have to count.
• Lady Une pulls an Awesome moment early in the series. After General Septum gives his speech, Une tells him "...we won't be needing you any further." Then the floor under Septum drops open, causing him to fall out of the airplane. Une smirks, then swipes out a pistol... and shoots the falling Septum in the head. A moment so awesome, the Toonami trailer used it.
• For for a OZ pilot, Walker managed to pull one off. After providing Zechs with Tallgeese, Walker goes into battle to buy him some time and gather data on the Gundams. He manages to save an Alliance general, and surround Heavyarms with his troops. However, Quatre and the Magnac Corps show up, shooting up the Aries. Utterly outnumbered and outmatched, Walker charges at Sandrock, shouting "Come get me, you monster!". Quatre catches the Aries in his heat shotels. As his mobile suit is being crushed, Walker calmly muses "Well, I always wanted to know how much this thing can take" before he dies. Not bad for a guy with one name.
• Episode 49, the series finale: when Heero fires his BFG at the giant space fortress hurtling towards earth as he begins to burn in the upper atmosphere while yelling "I will... I will... I will survive!". Not to mention when he appears moments later flying away from the massive blast in his jet mode in ultra dramatic style. This is amazingly awesome because of the fact he pretty much screams it (at least in Japanese); this is coming from a guy who has never raised his voice prior. To top it off, for the majority of the show he didn't care whether he lived or died as long as his mission was completed. Watching that scene was so... Squee.
• From Endless Waltz:
  • Heero having finally arrived, with Wing Zero, at the compound where Relena and Mariemaia are:

Heero: Let me confirm: your shelter is secure?

Dekim: What?!

Heero: I'm asking if your shelter is shielded.

Mariemaia: Of course! See for yourself just how powerless you are!

Heero: Roger that. (fires BFG) BOOM

All the Bad Guys: ...!

• • Relena intercepting Lady Une's Armor-Piercing Slap for Mariemaia and delivering one herself.
  • A retroactive moment for Trieze; even after he has been dead a full year, just sharing his name is almost enough to allow Mariemaia and Dekim Barton to conquer the world. The only reason it doesn't work is because Trieze's soldiers are so loyal to his vision that when Dekim oversteps that vision they kill him. How many characters can claim to nearly take over the world from beyond the grave?
  • The scene of Zechs reappearance after his assumed death. "Zechs Marquise?! I thought you were dead!" "That's right, I was. But I found that I cannot quietly sleep in my grave, while Treize's spirit is still roaming among us."
    • Addendum: "This is Wind. I'm destroying MO-3."
  • Duo Maxwell was faced with two Gundam-class machines, each using AI based on his friends Heero and Trowa. He manages to take both of them down at the same time with little effort, pausing only to coolly comment "Maybe next time you should use my data."
  • Zechs, Noin, Duo, Trowa and Quatre fight an entire army of mobile suits and manage to take down numerous opponents without actually killing a single soldier. The only reason they don't outright win the battle, as Quatre notes, is because they aren't killing anyone.
• At the English-language premiere of Endless Waltz at Anime Weekend Atlanta, the entire crowd burst into applause at these above moments.