History Awesome / Firefly

** "You'll have to rely on your winning personality to get women. God help you."

* Duran from "Trash" being one of the very few people ever to get the better of Saffron, ''despite'' being possibly the only person in the Verse to still love her despite knowing what she's really like.

* Also, in this [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness fairly hard sci-fi setting]], she convinces Jubal that she has melded with ''Serenity.'' Of course, if we're entirely honest Jubal Early [[PsychoForHire doesn't exactly have his clock fully wound to begin with]], if you know what we mean, but even so.

** Mal: "You don't know me, son, so let me explain this to you once. If I ever kill you, you'll be awake, you'll be facing me, and you'll be armed." [[spoiler: As Dobson was when... well, see below.]]

* Mal definitively sealed his {{Determinator}} status in "Out of Gas," when the salvagers [[spoiler: shoot him in the stomach.]] That just makes Mal angrier. He follows ''that'' up with [[spoiler: trudging through the ship, shooting himself ''in the heart'' with a giant needle of adrenaline, then repairing the ship, before walking back through ''Serenity'' and ''finally'' collapsing from blood loss on the bridge.]] Now ''that'' is pretty damn awesome.

** Also in "Our Mrs. Reynolds", a cut scene from the actual episode where River accuses Saffron of stealing - Mal still at this point believes that [[spoiler: Saffron is just a dumb hick girl]] and tries, in his own way, to make her a better person:

* [[spoiler:Kicking Jubal Early]] into space in "Objects In Space".

** Then later on Jayne uses Vera [[spoiler: to snipe a window in the ship-killing electro-net that is about to ensnare Serenity, sending the pirates manning it into space, and then shoots out the couplings that are powering the net. Yep, Jayne Cobb took out a starship sized emplacement with a rifle!]]

* The escape from the holding cell in "Ariel," which was not only a joint CMOA for both Jayne and Simon (see Simon example below) but also a redemptive moment for Jayne, whose very fault it was that the two of them and River were in that holding cell to begin with [[spoiler:since Jayne had planned to turn Simon and River over to the Alliance for the reward money, but got betrayed himself and arrested along with them due to the Fed he dealt with wanting to keep the reward for himself]] and who almost got ThrownOutTheAirlock because of the greedy and stupid move that got them captured in the first place.
** And the ensuing moment of awesome/heartwarming when Jayne, upon realizing he is going to be ThrownOutTheAirlock , makes the last request that Mal not inform the rest of the crew why [[spoiler:which is the only thing that convinces Mal to spare his life.]]

** This only gets better when you rewatch it and notice [[spoiler: Mal is doing all he can to hold Wash's attention on the argument and off being tortured. When Wash is about to break Mal raises the subject of whether there was anything sexual between him and Zoe and Wash becomes noticeably more determined.]]

* Book's entire implied backstory. The saddest part of the series' cancellation was that this was never further explored, but it is STRONGLY implied that he was at one point [[spoiler:an Operative]] or something similar, helped by lines like the oft-overlooked one from Jubal Early: "That's no shepherd."

** Of course Simon wasn't going to kill Jayne on the operating table. [[TheMedic First Do No Harm.]] Not to mention his reasoning for forgiving Jayne: Being unwilling to kill him while Jayne was under his care, the only alternative was for the two of them to constantly be watching each other lest one of them get a knife in the back. And Simon finds that prospect tiring. He simply doesn't want to put up with the hassle. [[spoiler: Also, River can kill Jayne with her brain.]]

-->'''Early''': "I'll be a son of a whore. You're not in my gorram mind! [[spoiler: You're on my ''gorram ship!'']]"

* [[PsychoForHire Crow,]] Niska's chief enforcer, gets a very [[PreMortemOneLiner nice speech]] at the end of 'The Train Job.' [[spoiler: It's almost a shame that Mal had his reply rehearsed and his engine running.]]

* The Alliance {{Mook}} who fights Jayne in ''Ariel'' puts up a surprisingly good showing, biting Jayne's hand when Jayne tries to smother him, then trying to gouge out his eyes to make Jayne divert his hands and landing some good punches before Jayne finishes him off.

For more [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome shininess]] from the BigDamnHeroes, see [[{{Awesome/Serenity}} the entries for the Big Damn Movie and Dark Horse comics.]]

---> '''Captain''': [[NotSoDifferent You would have done the same.]]

For more [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome shininess]] from the BigDamnHeroes, see [[{{Awesome/Serenity}} the Big Damn Movie's entries.]]

* Wash gets a few in ''Float Out''. He: [[spoiler: outwits the Alliance, single-handedly defeats a Reaver raiding party and ''weaponises the environment'']].

* In the canonical "Leaves On The Wind" comics, Early comes back to the ship and has disarmed the entire crew, but feels he's forgetting someone. Finally, it dawns on him: "[[OhCrap The Mechanic.]]" Cue Kaylee [[HeyYouHaymaker knocking him cold]] in one hit with a wrench and then threatening to torture him as he's chained up in a perfect bit of retribution for what he put her through in "Objects in Space":
--> ''(holding a pair of pliers right against Early's eye)'' [[IronicEcho "You mess with us, your body is forfeit. It's just a body to me, Jubal, and I can find all manner of unseemly use for it.]] Just gimme a gorram reason."

** It should be noted, the first thing Simon says to Jayne when he wakes up is to ask, in a ''very'' cold tone of voice, if Jayne can move. Simon then explains, in the same tone, that he's paralyzed Jayne's spine so he didn't wrench it when he came to. The implication is obvious: Simon ''could'' do all manner of unpleasant and permanent things to Jayne every time he gets injured, but he ''won't''. Simon's just not that kind of person.

* Wash holding onto the control stick in ''Trash'', even though the audience is treated several times to a flashing display with a klaxon "PROXIMITY WARNING" flashing. He's sitting in the bridge, with no clear view of the top of the ship (the bridge isn't the highest elevation on ''Serenity''; the area above the dining room is), having to ''guess'' how much distance exactly there is between the roof of the dining room and the trash crate, and also having to compensate for the wind, managing to keep ''Serenity'' from moving more than a foot in any direction. [[DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound The flashing klaxon alarm alone would be enough to drive anyone nuts...]]

* Wash holding onto the control stick in ''Trash'', even though the audience is treated several times to a flashing display with a klaxon "PROXIMITY WARNING" flashing. He's sitting in the bridge, with no clear view of the top of the ship (the bridge isn't the highest elevation on ''Serenity''; the area above the dining room is), having to ''guess'' how much distance exactly there is between the roof of the dining room and the trash crate, and also having to compensate for the wind, managing to keep ''Serenity'' from moving more than a foot in any direction. [[MostAnnoyingSound The flashing klaxon alarm alone would be enough to drive anyone nuts...]]

** Specifically, he did some research and found out the agents were ''way'' out of their jurisdiction, and calmly predicted that nobody would care in the slightest if Mal's crew killed them all and left their bodies to be forgotten in an icy canyon. The head Fed did a quick factoring of his tactical situation, [[KnowWhenToFoldEm and decided to retreat.]]

** Also in "Our Mrs. Reynolds", a cut scene from the actual episode where Mal still believing that [[spoiler: Saffron is just a dumb hick girl]] and tries, in his own way, to make her a better person:
--->'''Mal:'''"...But what I got even less use for is a woman who won't stand up for herself. You won't last a day by bowing and sniffing for handouts. You want something, you take it, or ask for it. You don't wait to be told when to breathe, you don't take orders from anyone... Damnit, be like a woman is. Not no petrified child. '''There's more'n 70 little earth's spinning about the galaxy and the meek have inherited not a one.'''"

For more [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome shininess]] from the BigDamnHeroes, see [[{{Awesome/Serenity}} the Big Damn Movie's entries.]]

* Mal's face when he tells Jayne "You did it to ''me''" is a [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome CMOA]] and terrifying all rolled into one. The CrowningMomentOfAwesome is (1) Jayne honestly wouldn't intentionally doublecross Mal, because Mal is pretty much the only person he respects in the universe, and (2) Mal's commitment to loyalty and his TrueCompanions is just that strong.

* I find the moments when Jayne gets a clever verbal jab in at another character to be [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Crowning Moments Of Awesome]] of a subtler sort. Although they are in a sense used to show that an antagonist is currently holding the [[IdiotBall Idiot Ball]] (i.e. "wow, ''Jayne'' just outsmarted him, he must be REALLY stupid!"), they also show that for all his, ah, unsophistication, Jayne has some cleverness to him.

* Wash had several [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Crowning Moments Of Awesome]] in the pilot.

** That incident is also a CrowningMomentofHeartwarming because River watches Simon save the man's life and gives a sweet grin to show how proud she is of her big brother.

* In "Jaynestown," when Stitch starts beating the crap out of Simon, the doctor manages to ''smash a ceramic bottle over Stitch's head.'' Whether this is a CrowningMomentOfAwesome for our NonActionGuy proving he's not a complete pushover, or one for Stitch for taking a ceramic bottle to the face ''without flinching'' is up to your interpretation.

* Oh, hell, "War Stories" is practically the entire CrowningMomentOfAwesome for the entire series. ''Everyone'' gets to do something awesome in that episode.

* The moment in "Shindig" when Kaylee stops trying to be what she's not and wows half the party because really, most of those men would rather talk about engines than prance around.

** And just look at the personalities he's commanding: a PluckyComicRelief AcePilot, his Amazonian war buddy who unfailingly calls him "sir," a bubbly and cheerful genius mechanic, a HighClassCallGirl, a high-society brilliant doctor and his crazy psychic sister, and a devout man of God. It takes a strong and unique personality to blend this ragtagiest RagtagBunchOfMisfits into not just a crew, but a deadly loyal family.

** Mal: "Son, you don't know me, so I'm going to tell you this once. [[KnightInSourArmor I shoot you, you're going to be awake. You're going to be facing me, and you're going to be armed.]]" [[spoiler: As Dobson was when... well, see below.]]