Awesome / El Goonish Shive

"You are willing to die for her, if you weren't, you would have never earned this spell."

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

General & NP

• Dan can get one himself, for recognizing his own Cerebus Syndrome, and making efforts to counteract it. As far as it can be told so far, quite successfully.
• Sarah gets another one. Snarking to a powerful magical user for waking her up and Pandora at that.
• In the NP Comic "Rad Squirrel", Grace's build (high endurance and unarmed for her Pacifist Run) allows her to effortlessly destroy the extremely bigoted, myopic, and excessively cruel Caesar's Legion.

Sister

• Elliot standing up for Ellen, even though she's spent her entire existence so far as a Card-Carrying Villain, and Mr. Verres proving a Reasonable Authority Figure.
• Ellen versus goo.
• "H-he moved that fast because I moved him! N-now stay back! I could e-easily ''*sniffles*'' destroy you a-and I will if you try to hurt the kitty again!"
• Elliot's parents take Ellen in as their daughter without even saying a word about it, they just instantly include her in the dinner planning like it's the most natural thing, and keep going from there.

New And Old Friends

• X-Men have taught me better than that
• Tedd explains (and defends) his pervertedness

Painted Black

• Sarah attacking the much larger Hedge and then standing up to him.
• Grace's scene of Unstoppable Rage as she takes on Damien.
• It's hard to look bad ass when using fairy powers, but Nanase manages.
• Nioi's forcefield
• "Damien...is a dead man..."

Grace's Birthday Party

• Another one for Susan occurs during Grace's genderbender-themed party. After too much thinking into the fact that she is a man, Susan flashes back to her childhood trauma, begins to freak out, and looks for a place where she can be alone. She goes to the basement and finds Justin, who is on the verge of tears over his own issues. Her mind is being bombarded by painful childhood memories, but she manages to toss them aside so she can listen to Justin and try to help. She even pushes through ALL the memories of her father without missing a beat, which was one of the most traumatic events in her life that defined her personality (her alternate didn't experience it, and they're on two completely different sides of the spectrum), ignoring her past prejudices to help a friend in need.

Sister II

• Tedd, fighting school uniform policy. As the strip title says "You'd Have to be Han Solo to Look Cooler in a Vest". Hell yes. It gets even better in the next comic. One of the greatest Glasses Pulls ever.
• Imagine Spot or not, this is Elliot's Moment of Awesome.
• "You are trespassing." I suspect this will only be the beginning of something epic. The comic's title sums this up: "Bravest. Hall Monitor. EVER."
  "Have you no honor?" "The lives of my students are more important."
• Abe vs. Raven, all the way. It's hard to make a swordfight badass at three pages a week, but Dan manages.
• As mentioned on the main page, this Badass Boast when Abe calls Raven out on Immortal Law:
  Raven: My career choices are limited. I have been shamefully forbidden to serve in any military. I can act directly if the situation involves magic or is an immediate threat to myself or others. You are a homicidal wizard invading a public school. NO ONE WILL CARE IF I KILL YOU.
• Susan makes an entrance
• Mr. Verres has investigated the Lord Tedd matter. Awesome because it makes perfect sense, but you totally don't see it coming.
• Nanase never stops fighting
• Chaos takes care of everything, without actually doing anything.
• Nanase has proven she is willing to die for Ellen. Her resolve stuns even Abe. Hell, everything between comics 1013 and 1019 is a Moment of Awesome for Nanase.
• Mr. Verres goes Uncle Wolf here, disproving everyone who thought he was just a Bumbling Dad.
  "Get my niece to a hospital. NOW."
• Magus openly defying Pandora despite knowing what she's capable of.
• Raven calling out his immortal mother in this strip.

Bringing Silly Back

• Elliot and Noah's race through Swedekea. One panel has them somehow blowing up a large section of the sale floor, although that probably didn't happen.
• Susan hesitates, then fails, to pull out a Hyperspace Mallet to punish two hilariously rude comic book geeks speculating about her being an alien. Then Catalina gets them from behind with a plastic toy of Thor's hammer.
• Also, Justin gets one here—Dan even says as much in the author commentary.
• "Dude. I can fly."
• Dunkels-parents provide steady supply of awesome whenever they both appear. Especially when trying to make a point. "Supper and alibis"...
• The Dunkel parents' explanation of Swedekea is EXTREMELY awesome. Their sole purpose in the series might just to be Elliot and Ellen's awesome parents.
• Melissa getting promoted from a mad limpet to a Girl With Guts, who, instead of Holding Out for a Hero, stands against the... uh... dracobulldog who knocked out the local "superhero" right before her eyes and tries to make it disappear in a Puff of Logic before delivering an epic You Are Already Dead one-liner as the cavalry arrives..

9001% Serious

• The "Death Sentence" arc has one for Catalina and Rhoda: Catalina for making a Big Damn Heroes entrance to rescue Rhoda from a charging boar, then using her camera flash to scare it off; and Rhoda for managing to stop panicking, remember her own camera and join in on Catalina's plan rather than lie and wait for the all clear.
• So. Somewhere in the universe there is something called a 'Deathless Army of Rage', and said army apparently had its sights set on Earth. Past tense, because this happened. Apparently, all that's needed to protect the world isn't magic or force, but a whiteboard and some Verbal Judo. It's the nonchalant hands-in-the-pants-pockets (whilst staring up a ...thing twice his size and half again as many limbs) that clinches it, though.
• In this strip following the death of the boar, Grace delivers a deeply inspiring Rousing Speech for Actual Pacifists everywhere.

The Dawn

• The entire part where Angel Nanase and Angel Ellen take on not-Tengu and won.
• In a Mundane Made Awesome fashion, Diane is vehemently countering rumors that Elliot is gay (and she does so using well-thought out arguments, correct spelling, and proper grammar to boot).
• From just a few incongruities, Susan not only deduces Tom's attempt at manipulating her, she continues to push his buttons until he reveals his true self to the entire cafeteria. That's right, Susan out-manipulates a supposed master-manipulator. Then she verbally tears him a new one here.
• Susan gets another here, when she meets with Ashley, Tom's ex. Ashley feels like an idiot, since Susan figured out in one day what it took her two months to discover. Susan delivers an inspiring and spot-on speech, assuring Ashley that Tom is the only one to blame for his manipulations, and that Ashley should never feel it's her own fault she was tricked. Even more awesome was that this was also in response to the fans, some of whom were suggesting that Ashley was an idiot to have been manipulated for two months.

Pandoras Box

• Tedd's character development of awesome. In the beginning, he was a Chivalrous Pervert who was often the victim of Sarah's hammers. But after experiencing some very crude flirtations and finding out that some guys have been hitting on Grace the same way his first instinct is to find an immortal and make them replicate the magical effects of the hammers. And not just for Grace, but for all women.
• It's very minor compared to, well, pretty much all of the other examples here, and very plausible in real life (Dan himself actually did this), but while playing against Tensaided in the Magickal Cards tournament, Sarah drew the fifth and last energy needed to summon O.P. Aludrakrala, but paused when she remembered Tensaided hadn't summoned anything when he had three energy himself. So she instead attempted to summon "Beefy Lycanthrope" instead, and Tensaided countered with Cancel Spell to stop the summon, just as Sarah planned.
• Sarah instantly shuts down Larry's attempts to hit on her, instead using their card match to get to know him and attempt to educate him on how to treat women respectfully. When the latter proves to be futile...
  Sarah: That's it! I'm done trying to educate you. I'm out.
  Larry: You... forfeit?
  Sarah: Forfeit? Hell no. I WILL BREAK YOU.
• After losing the match to Sarah, Larry mutters that she's a "fake geek lesbian". Cue Tensaided popping over to give him a firm talking-to and set him straight.
• Luke winning a round on autopilot while so distracted he didn't even notice he had won.
  • Genius Bonus: Becomes even better if you're familiar enough with Magic: The Gathering to recognize that Luke's playing a control deck, the archetype specifically built around reacting to and countering your opponent's moves.
• Ashley gets the griffin's attention with a well-aimed soccer kick on the first try. Pretty impressive when you consider the target is flying at fairly high speeds when she does it.
• The entirety of this sequence ^note complete with alternate sunglasses version◊
  Cheerleadra: ...I almost fought that griffin.

Sister 3 - Catspaws

• When Pandora is informed about the Immortal that had tricked the griffon to attack Elliot, she delivers a very concise threat.
  Pandora: I'll learn what happened. Find out who this meddling Immortal is... and I will tear them to shreds.
• It's a fairly heartbreaking one, but Adrian calling Pandora out on her secretly selfish agenda, pushing her in to a heel realization with just 6 words.
  Adrian: Father would hate what you've become.
• Grace can officially lift a car now and manages to move into Good Is Not Nice and Good Is Not Soft mode...at least for vampires.
• Grace manages to nix Elliot's grumbling about everyone's gossip about him possibly being Cheerleada and making snide comments about the gender-bending that entails while not validating their opinions one iota by asking one simple question: "Elliot, how did you react the first time you saw Tedd as a girl?
• Way back in #1096, when Susan was telling Grace and Sarah about her and Nanase's encounter with the vampire in France, Grace half-seriously calls her "Susan the Vampire Slayer". In #2432, she more than lives up to the title when she cuts one in half.
• Pandora unleashes her power and kills every single aberration, destroys "Scarf's" gun and prevents the shrapnel from hitting anyone within the span of a moment. Doubles as a non-lethal Heroic Sacrifice due to Immortal law likely forcing her to reset.
  Author's commentary: When an immortal of Pandora's power actually pulls the metaphorical trigger, there are no punches thrown, no weapons drawn, no fire or lightning, not even a wave of a hand, or pointing of a finger. The lives of their enemies are simply over, the immortal having seemingly done nothing, and the exact methods known only to them, and every other immortal who has been forcibly burdened with the knowledge of what has just happened.
• Pandora unleashes her power again and manages to force every other Immortal to cast a spell that destroys every Aberration within range of the multiple sources of origin for the spells. We later learn that more than 99% of all the Aberrations on the planet were killed as a result.
• Tedd manages to work out exactly how the Will's thought processes work, why magic is so confusing to humans and how to make the Will understand exactly how humanity currently operates within seconds. And with that insight, she manages to explain her position to Magic in a way it could understand, ultimately convincing Magic that changing the rules severely is a bad idea! For bonus points, this means that Tedd and Pandora succeeded in breaking the status quo! The main thing stopping them from giving magic to everyone was the Will of Magic itself threatening a system change, but Tedd managed to convince it to go along with its reveal!
• There were a few hints that Ellen was Fighting from the Inside when Sirlek was controlling her, but it doesn't suspect a thing until...
  Ellen: "You will leave... When I kick you out Myself!"
  • Ellen really deserves some more recognition for how she played her cards in this situation. When Sirlek took control of her, she let him think that she'd been subdued, only offering some token resistance so Sirlek wouldn't be too suspicious. All the while she was biding her time, waiting until Sirlek made his move. Ellen, you are a very, very clever young woman.
• Magus revealing that he saw Sirlek's betrayal coming and killing him.
• The brilliant Both Sides Have a Point debate that follows Magus' reveal that he intends to turn Ellen into a boy without asking first. Elliot is very right to be upset because he knows Ellen and also because this is something Magus intends to do whether she wants it or not, meaning this falls under the Fridge Brilliance pointed out on the appropriate page about gender changes being a-okay and sources of comedy when they're consensual but horrible when forced. But Magus, even putting aside the different rules for his world that may or may not apply here, is also right in pointing out that no one has bothered to find out if Ellen actually enjoys being female or has just convinced herself she is because there's no other choice; Word of God says that his conclusion is wrong but his point isn't.
• Elliot defending Ellen from Magus and managing to shut him down to "That's just the way we do things" with a simple question: "If the only issue is strength, can't you just make default physical forms stronger without making them male?" While in Cheerleada form no less.
• Ashley being revealed to be a wizard and gaining a Animate Inanimate Object wand!
• Ellen blasting the golem out of the building! Admittedly, it doesn't seem to do much damage, but it certainly was visually epic!
• Magus vs. Golem.
• The ones who took charge of the search party after Elliot, Ellen and Ashley were kidnapped by Magus and Sirleck were none other than their own parents, who were surprisingly good at it. They gave everyone assignments, called in Greg to help and even organized a coordinated ground-air search with Nanase and Grace. Not bad for a housewife and an accountant.

The New World

• Diane calling out all the guys lying about sleeping with her to seed doubt between them and weaken the rumors about her, and Lucy by extension.
• Grace, who is usually afraid to cause trouble, is assertive and makes it clear to Luke and Justin that she does not appreciate them talking about her potential powers behind her back, and that Luke should mind his business about her. She then realizes, before it's too late, that she might be overstepping in her own way by talking to Sam about his Trans status if he doesn't bring it up first.
• Grace defending Sam from "Smoke", a wizard who tried to pressure him into using his spell so that they could pull a Power Copying on it.
• Justin calling Sarah out on her Yaoi Fangirl tendencies. Sure, he turns out not to mind personally, but it’s refreshing seeing something like this addressed.
• Fairy!Cheerleadra defeating Evil!Sarah in Ashley's fantasy sequence.
• The Reveal that Diane has a very specific definition of "nerd" is awesome not only because her definition is "cares more about trivia than other people, is proud of this and looks down on others for not knowing what they know" but it also leads into a very thoughtful examination between "nerd" and "person who likes things associated with nerds but is not considered a nerd" as well as Tedd's realization that he may have some degree of ADHD (specifically hyperfocusing sounds very familiar). Then this discussion culminates on Ashley pointing out that there's a difference between a label someone chooses for themselves and a label someone puts on other people.
• The Both Sides Have a Point with Elliot and Tedd validating Sarah's discomfort about gender-changing and her insisting that despite that, she still didn't have a right to be mean is very well-done and very necessary, in universe and out.

Balance

• Lord Tyrant Slayer, one of the head griffins, calling out one of the newbies named Dwight on their Fantastic Racism towards Uryuoms. Specifically, he asks the griffin if the uryuom before them named Virginia looks dangerous or that he feels threatened by her as a trained guard griffin(Who is trained to guard royalty and important people). The way this was done was so inspiring that it's motivating Elliot to learn how to negotiate with words instead of fists! As he puts it:
  Elliot : Punching with fists is amateur hour! I want to learn to punch with words!

The Road Ahead

• Susan gets a bunch of very vague comments about change on Susan's review videos. Then she notices that the username of the person leaving the comments is "Deus-D-Minus-4", which Susan almost immediately deduces is code for "Zeus". From her, she pieces together that Zeus has sent her a secret message telling her that immortal law has been changed to give them more freedom, but as an unintended side effect, immortals can no longer be intangible (though they can still turn invisible). Mr. Verres, aside from confirming that there's proof that Susan is at the right conclusion, is impressed by Susan's critical thinking since most people would ignore unexpected secret messages like this (though Susan in this case caught it because the messages all referenced change at a time when she felt frustrated about the changes in her life), and she's able to back her conclusion with educated guesses and logic.

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