Delenn

Only one Human captain has ever survived battle against a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else."

They complied.

Vir

Timid, milquetoast Vir telling off Morden when the Shadow agent tries to tempt him:

"I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless eyes and wave... like this."

<waggles fingers>

"Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

A big part of the moment is the look on Morden's face, because he knows that the Shadows have arranged for every other request to be granted, one way or another. Although it would not benefit the Shadows for him to die, he knows that Karma is a bitch. You can see this here. That one was certainly his first Crowning Moment of Awesome. And the moment of awesome gets an extension when Vir actually gets his wish. later on *waves* Also bears mentioning (adding to the awesome) that while the shadows technically grant everyone's wishes, Vir is the only one who gets what he actually wanted.

Londo

Londo: "Yes, your ships are very impressive in space, or in the air. But they are on the ground now."

Morden: "So? They can sense an approaching ship from miles away! So what are you going to do, Mollari? Blow up the island?"

Londo: "Actually..." [produces detonator from his jacket] "Now that you mention it..."

Morden: Nooo!!

*boom*

Ivanova

"Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova. Commander. Daughter of Andrei and Sophie Ivanov. I am the right hand of vengeance... and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart! I am Death Incarnate... and the last living thing that you are ever going to see. God sent me.". AWESOME

• To paraphrase the creator, "Yes it went over the top. That is so the rest of us can know where the top IS!"
• This troper feels that it also allowed the audience to see just how PISSED Ivanova was at the EF Higher-ups for their warcrimes.

From In The Beginning, Londo Mollari descibes how Humanity fought during the Earth-Minbari war. It serves as a crowning moment for mankind. (The music and war visuals really help, too.)

G'Kar:

"No dictator... no invader... can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free."

Sheridan

Sheridan's smackdown on not one but two First One races in B5. From the episode Into the Fire of season 4:

Sheridan: The Vorlons ask only one question over and over: Who are you? You, for you the question is what do you want? I have never heard you answer that question. Who are you? What do you want? ... It doesn't matter which side wins this today. A thousand years from now, it'll start all over again. You're as trapped in this cycle as much as we are. But we can't afford it anymore. We don't need it. We don't need you. We've learned how to stand on our own. We'll make mistakes, but they'll be our mistakes, not yours. ... We refuse to take sides in this anymore. And we refuse to let you turn us against one another! We know who we are now. We can find our own way between order and chaos. ... It's over because we’ve decided it's over! Now get the hell out of our galaxy! Both of you!

Londo

"Because I have asked you to, and because your loyalty to our people should be greater than your ambition, and because I have poisoned your drink."

Londo

And how he handles Lord Refa. Putting a person in a room alone with a race he tried to commit genocide on? With his bodyguards bribed to walk away? AND BLACK BAPTISTS SINGING A BIBILICAL HYMN! "No hiding place down here"? Awesome.

Sheridan

Sheridan's "apology" in The Fall of Night. Even if he only gave it to a mirror, the implication is that he was fully prepared to actually say it.

"I'm sorry we had to defend ourselves against an unwarranted attack! I'm sorry that your crew was stupid enough to fire on a station filled with a quarter million civilians, including your own people! And I'm sorry I waited as long as I did before I blew them all straight to Hell!... As with everything else, it's the thought that counts."

• Confirmed by the director. YES he was going to say it!

'Garibaldi

500 years after the end of season four a hologram programmed with Garibaldi's personality to take part in a propaganda film will hack the computer projecting him and use it to warn one faction of humanity's government that the other (Orwellian) half is about to attack their civilian population centres. A hologram...

Ivanova

"Ivanova is always right."

Marcus Cole

his You Shall Not Pass moment versus Neroon, who was gunning for Delenn so he could secure himself a Klingon Promotion. Not if Marcus has anything to say about it.

I am a Ranger! We walk in the dark places no others will enter. We stand on the bridge, and no one may pass. We live for the One, WE DIE FOR THE ONE!!.

Sinclair

Sinclair's Xanatos Gambit proving that you shouldn't give someone the authority to use "any means necessary" unless you're 100% sure they'll decide to use the means you want them to, in the first season episode called (appropriately) "By Any Means Necessary". Specifically, invoking the Rush Act to use "any means necessary" to quell a workers' revolt— and using it to tap into the military budget to hire more workers and replace the shoddy equipment that caused the strike in the first place. The crushed look on the face of the EarthGov goon who was expecting to see a crackdown was priceless.

J. Michael Straczynski

The closing card for the final episode of Season 4: "Dedicated to all the people who predicted that the Babylon Project would fail in its mission. Faith manages."

JMS: And yeah, that little closing card is going to remain on the show for its life...which will be long, long after its detractors (and admittedly myself) have gone to dust. On the one hand, it is a statement of hope to anyone else out there who has a dream, to follow it no matter who speaks against you, no matter the odds, no matter what they say to or about you, no matter what roadblocks they throw in your way. What matters is that you remain true to your vision.

On the other hand, for the reviewers and the pundits and the critics and the net-stalkers who have done nothing but rag on this show for five years straight, it is also a giant middle finger composed of red neon fifty stories tall, that will burn forever in the night.

In billiards, we call that a bank-shot.

Sheridan

How he ended up on Z'ha'dum! They screwed with his wife, and replaced her mind with a false personality. So, he went to their home planet, and crashed his White Star into it...while it was loaded with nuclear weapons. Scratch the capital city of the Shadows.

This is THE C Mo A for the ENTIRE SERIES. The commander goes on a Lone Mission, a Suicide Mission no less, against Insurmountable Odds, and an Inhumanly Superior Foe. (The Shadows are the Bogeyman of the entire series.) He Confronts Evil Head On and Decapitates the Enemy Single Handed, then he gets Thrown Down The Bottomless Pit, and survives (sort of). It doesn't get more awesome than that.

• Yes it dose. Read at the top of the page, and re-view that scene. It sends chills down my spine only thinking about it.

President of Earth at the climax of the Earth/Minbarri War:

"This is...This is the President. I've just been informed that our midrange military bases at Beta Durani and Proxima 3 have fallen to the Minbari advance. We've lost contact with Io and must conclude that they too have fallen to an advance force. Our military intelligence believes that the Minbari intend to bypass Mars and hit Earth directly and the attack may come at any time. We have continued to broadcast our surrender and a plea for mercy. And they have not responded. We therefore can only conclude... that we stand at the twilight of the Human race. In order to buy more time for our evacuation transports to leave Earth, we ask for the support of every ship capable of fighting to take part in a last defense of our homeworld. We will not lie to you. We do not believe that survival is a possibility. We believe that anyone who joins this battle... will never come home. But for every ten minutes we can delay the military advance several hundred civilians may have a chance to escape to neutral territory. Though Earth may fall, the Human race must have a chance to continue elsewhere. No greater sacrifice has ever been asked of a people than I ask you now... to step forward one last time... one last battle, to hold the line against the night. May God go with you all."

Sheridan

From "Intersections in Real Time":

Sheridan: You know, it's funny I was thinking about what you said. 'The pre-eminent truth of our age is that you cannot fight the system.' But if, as you say, truth is fluid, that the truth subjective, then maybe you can fight the system as long as one person refuses to be broken, refuses to bow down.

Interrogator: But can you win?

Sheridan: Every time I say 'no'.

Sinclair

From the Pilot after Sinclair tells G'Kar that there was a microscopic transmitter in the drink G'Kar just finished:

Garibaldi: I wonder if they'll ever find that transmitter you slipped in G'kar's drink.

Sinclair: No they won't. Because there is none. If I had put one in, sooner or later, they would have found it. This way, they'll keep looking.

Garibaldi: Are you aware of the tests they'll perform and the things they'll do to him?

Sinclair: Yes. Come on.

Garibaldi: There are some days I love this job.

Garibaldi

He discovers a certain group tried to kill him AND his wife, and accidentially wounded his wife. The board of directors of his own company. He finds these people, reveals he knows all their secrets, blackmails them into running away, reveals he has made their worst enemy the head of intelligence of the galaxy, and has set up a contingency that if he dies of ANYTHING but natural causes old age, they will have a $100,000 bounty on each of their heads.

G'Kar

"Comes the Inquisitor": While arranging a deal to help the stranded Narns on the station:

G'Kar: This money comes from the life savings of those Narns who escaped the occupation. It is a limited resource purchased with blood. If it should be stolen or squandered, rest assured that while your body may one day be found, it could never be identified from the remains.

Sinclair

Commander Sinclair in Infection (the 4th episode) explains why humans must venture into space...

Reporter: I have to ask you the same question people back home are asking about space these days. Is it worth it? Should we just pull back? Forget the whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at home.

Cmdr. Sinclair: No. We have to stay here. And there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics, and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-Tzu, and Einstein, and Morobuto, and Buddy Holly, and Aristophanes, and - all of this - all of this - was for nothing. Unless we go to the stars.

Sheridan

[Sheridan's liberation fleet finally confronts Earth itself.] John Sheridan: This is Captain John Sheridan. We are here on the authority of a multi-planetary force, that can no longer stand by and watch one of their greatest allies falling into darkness and despair. We are here on behalf of the thousands of civilians murdered under orders from the current administration, who have no one else to speak for them, and on behalf of the EarthForce units that have joined us to oppose the tyranny that has darkened Earth, ever since President Santiago was assassinated three years ago. We are here to place President Clark under arrest, to disband Nightwatch, and return our government to the hands of her people. We know that many in the government have wanted to act, but have been intimidated by threats of retaliation against your families, your friends. You are not alone anymore. We call upon you to rise up and do what's right! We have drawn their forces away from Earth and disabled them. The time to act is now! This is not the voice of treason. These are your sons, your daughters, whose loyalties have never wavered, whose beliefs in this alliance has [sic] forced us to take extraordinary means! For justice, for peace, for the future…we have come home!

Ivanova

Ivanova: Trust yourself, Trust Ivanova, anybody else, Shoot 'em!

Sheridan

Sheridan's Xanatos Gambit / Mind Screw in the episode "Rumors, Bargains, and Lies" is made of total win. Remember, absolutely ''nothing'' out of the ordinary happened today in sector 83x9x12....

Bester

Bester's Xanatos Roulette, spanning most of the 4th season. When he delivers his The Reason You Suck Speech to his And I Must Scream victim, resulting in a Big No - definite CMOA material. This irreversibly upgraded Bester from Smug Snake to Magnificent Bastard.

When Morden asks Vir the Deal With The Devil Question: "What do you want?" he receives this answer: "I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless eyes and wave, like this (smiles and waves his fingers at Morden). Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

• Well Morden and his associates didn't. But Lando sure did. And Vir even did the little wave thing. Observation: Not telling the conclusion of the Crowning Moment is like forgetting the punchline when telling a joke.

Delenn

In the Distant Future, one sentence. "Sheridan was a good man." A hundred years after the events of the series, an ancient and possibly dying Delenn, who hadn't been seen in public for many years, breaks into a TV studio to interrupt a live debate over whether Sheridan was the hero the series portrays him as. With that one line.

• Same scene, different line: after saying the above sentence, one of the talking heads asks her "You came all this way just to say that?" Her response: "You came just as far to say less." BURN

G'Kar

G'Kar gets to do some impressive bit of philosophizing about ants in "Mind War". It arguably becomes a Crowning Moment retrospectively once you realize this is the first time he lets his true self show to the audience.

G'kar

After the end of the Narn-Centauri War:

Narn Warrior: I never thought you were a coward, G'Kar. We suffered and died during their occupation. Where were you? What have you endured?

G'Kar: What have I endured? Hahahahahahaha! (G'Kar walks out of the room, still laughing Considering that he's been tortured days on end by professional torturers... I mean Pain Technicians, trotted out for humiliation after humiliation, and had his eye plucked out...)

G'kar

"Comes the Inquisitor": When Vir gets stuck in an elevator with him and gives a quick, rather perfunctory apology. G'Kar brings home to him the enormity of what his people have done by slicing his palm open and using each falling drop of blood to punctuate his words:

G'kar: "Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.... How do you apologize to them?"

Vir: "I can't."

G'kar: "Then I cannot forgive."

• While clearly an incredible moment, not sure it is an "awesome" moment. Perhaps we need a new trope?

Vir

When he's sent by Londo to secure an audience with the Techno Mages, he has to face some huge, dangerous looking monstrosity. He simply stands there, giving his introduction, until the Mage controlling the beast finally gives up on sending him away. That boy's got balls!

G'kar

G'kar had several, many in conversation with Londo.

Londo: (after being thanked by G'kar for saving their lives) You would have done the same for me.

G'kar: Yes, but I'm a better person than you are.

Sheridan

Sheridan again, making his feeling on the subject of Nightwatch very clear:

Sheridan: No more! No more of you! No more Nightwatch, no more hostages, no more lies! Not on my station! Not On My Watch! No more! No more!

And this is while he's physically pummeling a Nightwatch hostage-taker and saboteur in full view of station civilians. That had to be one hell of a water-cooler story the next day.

Sheridan

Sheridan reappearing after his trip to Z'ha'dum.

Narn: Captain, we're sorry. We thought you were dead.

Sheridan: I was. I'm better now.

Ivanova: "You'll resist, I hope."

Garibaldi

Garibaldi, having tracked down the thugs who kidnapped Lise, introduces himself by throwing in a flash bang grenade that, just before it goes off, plays a Porky Pig "T-t-that's all folks!" Who could have guessed Garibaldi's love of Looney Tunes would have such a badass payoff?

• I believe this also counts as a Crowning Moment Of Funny

Neroon: "I was born Warrior Caste, but now I see the calling of my heart was Religious!"

• Charred to ashes*

Sheridan

"You tell your government that the only man to survive Z'ha'dum sends this message. We can end this, not just for now, not just for the next thousand years, but forever!"

Virs wish comes true wheh Morden is killed and beheaded by Londo in 2261. His head is placed upon a pike on the Centauri royal grounds, a gift from Londo to Vir, who mocks him as he threatened to do.

Zack Allen

Following his Heel Realization, Zack plays a key role in the Batman Gambit to force all the Nightwatch members off the station, packing them all in a tight space before racing out to the hallway and diving through the closing door.

Delenn

Of note would have to be becoming QUEEN OF THE MINBARI! By SETTING HERSELF ON FIRE!

Susan Ivanova

In "Voices of Authority" she goes to one of the First Ones, and after they refuse to join the shadow war, she follows them and basically tells that the Vorlons told the humans that they had bigger dicks than these guys. She told this to THE FREAKING FIRST ONES and got them to agree to fight by pissing them the fuck off!

Na'Toth: "Deathwalker? Deathwalker! DEATHWALKER!"

This is followed up with a spanner beatdown.