History Awesome / BuffyTheVampireSlayer

--->'''Donny [=MacClay=]:''' Tara, if you don't get in that car, I swear by God I will beat you down.\\

* After a full episode of being made to feel inferior by the ZenSurvivor Watcher's Council, the ditziest BigBad ever to appear on the show, and a crazy KnightTemplar army of [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well Intentioned Extremists]], Buffy gives a perfectly calm, almost deadpan set of demands to the council's lead DeadpanSnarker, punctuated by a thrown broadsword. The scene in all its awesomeness:

** Not to mention he escapes ''by himself''. When the Scoobies show he just has to figure out how he's getting out the elevator, past the henchmen and to his crypt, in broad daylight. Notably the scooby gang showed up to ''kill him before he could talk''.

* After finding one of Glory's minions spying on them, Giles tells Anya and Willow to get twine to tie him up, and proceeds to engage in off screen violence. The minion quickly decides singing like a canary to be the wiser of the two options. Best part? When asked what happened, Giles/Ripper cooly responds with, "He changed his mind."

--->'''Glory''': Know what they used to do to witches, lover? Crucify 'em.
--->''Glory pulls her arm back to stab her, but Buffy appears and grabs Glory's wrist''.
--->'''Buffy''': They used to bow down to gods. Things change.

--->'''Willow:''' Spike was right. Snap out of it! What you're going through right now? It's called guilt. It's an emotion, and it's important, but it's not more than that. Buffy, you have had [[TitleDrop the weight of the world]] on your shoulders since high school, and for one second you wanted it to be over. So what?! \\
'''Buffy:''' I killed Dawn. \\
'''Willow:''' Hello, your sister? Not dead yet! But she will be soon, if you don't come back to us. \\
'''Buffy:''' What if I can't? \\
'''Willow:''' Then I guess you're right. You really did kill your sister. ''[turns to walk away]'' \\
'''Buffy:''' Where are you going? \\

* When Glory, noticing Tara (who had been driven insane by her) wandering around amongst her minions and contemptuously asking her "What are you doing here?", Willow calmly walks up beside her and replies in a tone somehow both deadpan and with barely suppressed rage "She's with me", before grabbing Glory's head and sucking away all of the energy keeping her mentally composed and redirecting it to Tara, thus simultaneously and instantly healing her lover and blasting a ''hellgod'' across a construction yard, significantly weakened.

-->'''Giles''': ...[Buffy] couldn't take a human life. She's a hero, you see. She's not like us. \\

--<'''Buffy:''' I'm beyond tired. I'm beyond scared. I'm standing on the mouth of Hell, and it is gonna swallow me whole. And it'll ''choke on me''. We're not ready? ''They're'' not ready. They think we're gonna wait for the end to come, like we always do. I'm done waiting. They want an apocalypse? Oh, we'll give 'em one. Anyone else who wants to run, do it now. 'Cause we just became an army. We just declared war. From now on, we won't just face our worst fears, we will seek them out. We will find them, and cut out their hearts one by one, until the First shows itself for what it really is. And I'll kill it myself. There is only one thing on this Earth more powerful than evil, and that's us. Any questions?

* Amanda seeks Buffy's advice on dealing with a jerky guy ...should she pound him into the pavement some more? As a long term BullyHunter the question leaves Buffy speechless. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Of course]], Amanada turns out to be a Potential.

* A lot smaller, but actually very impressive as well, the kill of the spiderdemon. Buffy just throws an axe into the air - down comes the spider, cut in half !

* Anya manages to hold her own in a duel against Buffy, which is very impressive for someone not known for their fighting prowess.

* Willow having the first confrontation with The First Evil. Even better, she manages to drive it away when it realizes that she's not as weak-willed as it thinks. She's left shaken by the encounter, but she doesn't back away from it.

-->'''Wood''': OK, I was bluffing. I hadn't really thought that one through. ''(leans forward)'' Listen, this whole permanent record thing is such a myth anyway. Colleges never ask for anything past your SAT scores, and it's not like employers are gonna be calling up to check to see how many days you missed back in high school. So, listen, I-I could suspend you, ''(stands, walks around desk)'' but that would mean calling your parents, alerting your teachers, filling out paperwork, and, quite possibly, having to talk to the school board--''(sits on desk in front of them)'' all of which sounds positively exhausting to me. No. No, I think it would be much easier if I just called the police, let them deal with it. ''(looks in their eyes)'' Oh, and, in case you're wondering, this is the part where I'm not bluffing.
-->'''Punk #2''': ''(looks at the other boy)'' We'll repaint it.

** Single-handedly rescuing Rona from the Bringers when she arrives in Sunnydale.

** Even better, she only told Willow and Xander about this via telepathy.

* Spike's getting his ass kicked by a demon that he needs to kill to help Buffy. [[CombatSadomasochist And he's laughing gleefully]], clearly having more fun than he has all season. The demon pins him against a wall, and Spike simply snaps its neck before pulling out a cigarette. Lighting it with a match struck on the dead demons skin tops it all off amazingly.
-->''I don't know your feelings, big guy. But to me, a tussle like that... *[[HesBack lights his smoke, takes a deep draw]]* [[BondOneLiner is good for the soul.]]''

* Spike sparing Wood's life, despite having been lured to be slowly beaten to death and getting the undisputed upper-hand in the fight.

* Blink and you'll miss it, when confronted by a shotgun wielding DirtyCop Kennedy does a move straight out of ''Film/TheMatrix'' and whacks him with his own gun, aims it at him, then [[ThrowAwayGuns tosses it aside.]]
* After Buffy gets ejected from her house, Rona tactlessly quips "Ding dong, the Witch is dead", prompting Dawn to shut her up in the most threatening manner possible.

'''Willow''': ''[stammering]'' We're her friends. We just want-\\

'''Giles''': You don't understand-\\

* Having got the scythe, Buffy rescues the Potentials by taking out several vamps with it. Just two episodes ago, they deposed her as leader. Now she's reminding them why she leads.
* Buffy sends Dawn out of town, getting Xander to pretty much kidnap her to keep her away from the apocalypse. Buffy leaves a touching letter with Xander for Dawn, she reads the note and we hear Buffy narrate what's written on the note - then the narration cuts off midway through, as Dawn tosses the note aside, tazes Xander, takes control of the car and turns right around to go back and fight the evil.

** Just to clarify - Caleb beat Buffy, Faith and Spike like they were nothing. And Angel floored him with one punch.

* Buffy killing Caleb with the scythe.

* Buffy returns home to find a pissed off little sis in front of her. She stares at Dawn for a moment, then Dawn kicks her in the shin. Which ''hurts'' Buffy, before Dawn calls her a dumbass. The best bit is that she just responds with, "...if you get killed, I'm telling".

--> What if you could have that power...now? In every generation, one Slayer is born... because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. This woman-" (re: Willow) "-is more powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rule. I say ''my'' power... should be ''our'' power.

** In addition, the fact that she gets up in slo-mo with that epic look on her face and the rousing music brewing in the background and then SLICES THREE TUROK-HAN OFF A CLIFF.

* Xander gets a series long SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome simply for surviving. Buffy's a Slayer and she died, twice. Willow's a witch and the most powerful character on the show. Anya's a demon and she died. Spike's a vampire and he died. Xander's human, barely a BadassNormal, and he's survived.
* Even if you weren't a Spuffy shipper you have to admit Spike being willing to go up ''in flames'' (even when he believed Buffy didn't return his love) to save the day, is awesome.

* Buffy killing a demon with a Crucifix.

* Giles stabbing Roden with pruning shears, then killing him by opening a holding spell inside his body.

* Xander [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath confronting Willow]]:

* Giles threatens Principal Snyder to let Buffy back in school. [[TranquilFury He's wearing Ripper's little smile, the one that says, "Please give me an excuse to hurt you, you tiny slug of a man."]]

* When Parker breaks up with Buffy after a one night stand, Willow goes to tear him a new one. He starts putting the moves on her, and she plays along a bit, before rocking him by seeing through his act.
* Buffy knocking out Parker with a piece of wood.

'''Buffy''': You're right. A human being in pain has nothing to do with your job. (''Walks away'')\\

''(Riley looks back at her, very surprised)''\\

*** Not only does she kill the vampire guarding her, she does it by levitating a pencil behind him and driving it through his heart when he's got her backed up against the wall and is about to drink her blood.

* She then proceeds to take out three hellhounds single-handedly. She ''deserved'' that Class Protector trophy.

* There's [[BigBad Mayor Wilkens]], right, who's invincible, on the verge of ascending into a [[ScaledUp giant snake]], and he's come to threaten the Scoobies in the library. When he menaces that he's going to kill Buffy, Giles stabs him through the chest with a saber. Being invincible and all, it only offends the Mayor that Giles would use violence, but it still shows him as a badass PapaWolf.

* Credit where credit is due Faith does not go down easily in her final fight with Buffy. Despite having Faith cornered in her own apartment, having an entire seasons worth of reasons to want to see Faith dead and needing to drain her blood in order to save Angel's life, Faith still manages to give Buffy one of her most intense and difficult fights in the entire series. And at the end when Faith gets gutted by Buffy by her own knife and is close to dying Faith more or less [[DefiantToTheEnd gives her a defiant screw you]] and purposely jumps off the top of her apartment building into a moving truck in order to prevent Buffy from getting her blood.

* Xander's the key guy, because he's the one who can bring the entire school together to fight the Mayor's doomy legion of dooming. He's got an in with the jocks (Larry, the swim team), the popular crowd (the Cordettes), and all the outcasts, because of all his tireless legwork for Buffy. And liplocking with Cordy.
* The Mayor was back to back awesome, even if not a badass as we'd call it now. His crowning moment, however, was probably killing the definition of AssholeVictim, Pricipal Snyder.
* Cordelia gets to dust her first vampire (at least on screen). Not just a good final moment of awesome before she departs the show for ''Series/{{Angel}},'' but also a nice bookend to the character who was held captive by vampires in the first episode and could only scream and cry.
* Jonathan staying to fight the zombies. That took a lot of cojones from someone like him.

* Vampire Lyle Gorch has made a point of saying "This ain't/isn't over" to Buffy every time he retreats. Then at the end, a goo-covered Buffy crawls out of the Mother Bezoar she has just hacked to death with a pickaxe..
-->'''Buffy:''' ''[Gives Lyle a'' look''.]'' \\

'''Buffy''': (''delivers possibly '''the most''' satisfying GroinAttack on all network television, which leaves Angelus paralysed on the floor in breathless agony, and walks away without looking back'') Give me time.

'''Cordelia''': [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech You're a sheep. All you ever do is what everyone else does just so you can say you did it first. And here I am, scrambling for your approval, when I'm]] ''[[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech way]]'' [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech cooler than you are cause I'm]] ''[[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech not]]'' [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech a sheep.]] I do what I wanna do, and I wear what I wanna wear. And you know what? I'll date whoever the ''hell'' I wanna date. ....No matter how lame he is.

** To hammer it in a little more, there was every chance that had Giles not wanted to prolong Angelus's suffering, he could have easily staked him right there. The only reason Angelus turned the tables was because he seized on an opening that Giles accidentally gave him, but until then, he was entirely at the man's mercy.

-->'''Angelus''': If I decide to walk into Buffy's room, do you think for one microsecond that you could stop me? \\
'''Xander''': Maybe not. Maybe that security guard couldn't either. Or those cops... or the orderlies... But ''I'm'' kinda curious to find out. You game? \\
'''Angelus''': Buffy's White Knight. You still love her. It must just eat you up that I got there first. \\
'''Xander''': You're gonna die. And I'm gonna be there. \\
'''Angelus''': Tell her I stopped by. \\

* Buffy is asked "who are you?" and instead of answering "no one" like everyone else she does a TitleDrop and says "I'm Buffy, the vampire slayer. And you are?" before kicking some ass.

** Keep in mind that Lyle thought Cordelia was a slayer in this scene, and she was playing to that misconception. In other words, bluffing her ass off - which, in some people's opinions, makes it even ''more'' awesome.

* Buffy [[BullyHunter scares off a group of bullies]] with what can be interpreted as a SlasherSmile.

* Angel cracking Faith's head with a shovel as she was trying to rape and kill Xander.

-->"Bored now." ''[She flips him onto a pool table then leans in to his neck]''. "I'm having a terrible night. Wanna make it better?"

* Xander single-handedly foiling the disgruntled lunchlady's attempt to murder students via poisoning the food.

'''Willow:''' It's way too late. You know, it didn't have to be this way. But you made your choice. I know you had a tough life. I know that some people think you had a lot of bad breaks. Well, boo-hoo! Poor you! You know, you had a lot more in your life than some people. I mean, you had friends in your life like Buffy. Now you have no one. You were a Slayer and now you're nothing. You're just a big, selfish, worthless waste.

* After Angel is poisoned and Buffy discovers that the only way to cure it is the blood of a slayer - she instantly prepares to take on Faith. She knows how powerful Faith is and that the fight won't be easy - but she'll do whatever she has to in order to save Angel. And tactically it's also a sound idea - removing a powerful obstacle from the enemy's side. The last part works - although Faith lives, being left comatose means she's unable to help the Mayor in the Ascension.

* Xander gets a series long SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome simply for surviving. Buffy's a slayer and she died, twice. Willow's a witch and the most powerful character on the show. Anya's a demon and she died. Spike's a vampire and he died. Xander's human, barely a BadassNormal, and he's survived.

* Buffy's entire fight with Vampire!Simone, capping it off with her staking the rogue slayer in the chest.

* After half of season nine being Buffy moping about being a Slayer and a comparatively weak BigBad, where does the series go from here? All the main characters at full force fighting super vampires. Buffy going back to basics. Xander and Anya are back. Willow's at full power now that magic has returned. So's a recently revived Giles. Spike and Angel are fighting together, and Faith, and Billy the male Slayer, and Kennedy with Holly and Leah as the Slayer answer to Delta Force. This is gonna be good.

* With ''Angel & Faith'' having kicked into high gear, the main series needed to step up, and the long awaited return to Sunnydale does so big time. For a while now it's been hinted that Warren will be resurrected. Well...the Scoobies chase Andrew when he steals the Vampyr book who intends to use it to bring Jonathan BackFromTheDead. There's someone else he intends to resurrect as well. [[WhamLine Tara. McClay]]. Oh... here we go.

* In the E-Comic "Harmony Comes to the Nation", Creator/JaneEspenson writes a Buffyverse-only one for... Creator/StephenColbert! It's a S8 tie-in. The plot? It's a two page comic showing an interview with Harmony after her show becomes big. Oh, and in his trademark style, points out her hypocrisy and stupidity.
* Buffy vs Dragon. Mid air. Shown during the AnimatedAdaptation preview and when it was worked into the comics it's shown the Dragon loses.

''(Cameron then proceeds to "get rough", and Buffy [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor gives him a bit more than he asked for]], slamming his head in the steering wheel and breaking his nose in the process.)''

* Drusilla taking out Kendra The Vampire Slayer with a swipe of her fingernail.

* The First Evil morphing into each previous BigBad [[ContinuityCavalcade in reverse order]] to torment Spike. CreepyAwesome indeed.

* When a vamp grabs Cordelia, Willow without missing a beat whirls away, grabs a stone bust and brains the vampire. She's come a long way from the hesitant girl of Season 1.

** Which gets reference in "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E22BecomingPart2}} Becoming, Part 2]]".

** To clarify a bit: The library is in the middle of the school and she SMASHES THROUGH DOORS and stops right outside the library.

** "You have fruit-punch mouth."