History Awesome / FinalFantasyXIII

* Jihl Nabaat gets one when she prepares to fight Lightning's party. The moment they ambush the bridge she jumps off the platform, lands ''in heels,'' casually walks up to them, and ''sneers'' at Sazh while at gunpoint. She may be one human against L'Cie with all their magical powers and abilities, but she was perfectly willing to fight all of them by herself.

* Just about the entirety of Chapter 1 is a few hours long Moment of Awesome in itself. The party including Hope and ComicRelief character Sazh defeats giant robots, dozens of soldiers and mechanized monsters, and fights a fal'Cie and mortally wounds it, and they ''[[BadassNormal hadn't even become l'Cie yet!]]''

* A post-humous one for the unnamed l'Cie who narrated Mission 64, the final mission against the SecretBoss, Vercingetorix. The main characters fight this as THE last challenge of the entire game. The unnamed l'Cie defeated it single-handedly.

** Lightning planning to let Hope survive at the expense of her life, then the instant Snow's started his attack, instead of just standing there, she dashes right into battle and kicks ass until Snow's done.

* The Zenobia hunt. A vicious-looking Cie'th with writhing tentacles for fingers emerges from the ground and prepares to do battle with the party... and then off-screen, a Tonberry rushes in at high speed, and kills the Cie'th in ''one hit'' with its knife. The subsequent battle subsequently confirms that Tonberries have [[TookALevelInBadass taken significant levels in badass]], going from a MightyGlacier to a LightningBruiser. The effect is increased after you've played ''XIII-2'', wherein a paradox-displaced Zenobia fights Serah and Noel. Even being (presumably) toned down due to being a mandatory fight in the middle of the story instead of a BonusBoss, Zenobia can qualify for ThatOneBoss.

** The scene shortly before their capture where Sazh just found out Vanille's secrets and nearly shoots her, than nearly shoots himself is a more meta CMOA for Vanille's (English) voice actress, culminated in this one scene:
--->'''Vanille:''' "My name is Oerba Dia Vanille. I'm a l'Cie from Gran Pulse -- and to everyone on Cocoon, evil. ''Shoot me!'' For your son."
*** It's also a crowning moment for the characters themselves. These lines may not seem impressive, but in context, they rival Assault On Eden in terms of awesomeness.
---->'''Vanille:''' ''(broken voice)'' "It's not over..."\\
'''Sazh:''' ''(fires over Vanille's shoulder)'' "Okay, fine! You want me? Come and get me!"

--->'''Vanille:''' "My name is Oerba Dia Vanille. I'm a l'Cie from Gran Pulse--and to everyone on Cocoon, evil. ''Shoot me!'' For your son."

* The beginning of Chapter 12, where the party begins their Assault on Eden - just all of it.

-->'''Fang:''' He's a biogenitor - chews up one species and spits out another.

* When the party first goes to [[spoiler:Gran Pulse]]. l'Cie also appear to be [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VPkNHqGq3Q expert acrobats]].

* The one scene with Sazh and Vanille, the two comic relief characters [[spoiler: escaping from the Palamecia. Both of them are being held hostage, but when two guards come in to take them away, one is taken out by Sazh after ''his chocobo chick body slams his face'', and when the automated flying thing tries to apprehend them, Vanille picks up a gun, screaming as she empties a clip into it]]. In FFXIII, you don't mess with the comic relief.
** The scene shortly before [[spoiler: their capture]] where [[spoiler: Sazh just found out Vanille's secrets and nearly shoots her, than nearly shoots himself]] is a more meta CMOA for Vanille's (English) voice actress, culminated in this one scene:
--->'''Vanille:''' [[spoiler:"My name is Oerba Dia Vanille. I'm a l'Cie from Gran Pulse--and to everyone on Cocoon, evil. ''Shoot me!'' For your son."]]

* Hope, in Chapter 7. [[spoiler: He tries to fight the Ushmajal Subjugator by himself, after Snow gets swatted aside.]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Hope:''' "Always the hero. You want to die? ...You can't."]]
-->[[spoiler: '''"Battle Team Changed--Hope: Ravager"''']]
-->[[spoiler: '''Hope:''' "I won't let you!"]]

*** [[spoiler: Just when it looks like Hope's toast, ''Lightning and Fang'' come out of nowhere and have their own BigDamnHeroes moment]]. Suddenly a HopelessBossFight becomes a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.[[note]]With careful management of the Paradigms Hope could kill the thing by CherryTapping it to death ''all by himself''. It'd still be easier to take a pounding to bring Lightning and Fang in though...[[/note]]

* Snow has a lesser BigDamnHeroes moment in the very first chapter: [[spoiler: Hey C'ieth, you want to chunk up TagalongKid Vanille and Hope? Not if Snow's fist has anything to say about it.]]
* [[spoiler:[[BigBad Dysley]] gets one when the heroes first confront him. Seeing a frail old man effortlessly destroy numerous troops, including Jihl, is quite a sight. Then he follows it up with an epic speech to open the fight:]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Dysley:''' "I am fal'Cie. My name is Barthandelus. Voice of the Sanctum and Lord Sovereign of the Cocoon fal'Cie. Your kind feared the dark and so we gave you light. You begged us for the Purge and did it not come to pass? Now you spurn our counsel? You must learn your place!"]]

* [[spoiler: Orphan gets one at the end with his DynamicEntry accompanied by SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic. His speech before the fight, with his VoiceOfTheLegion is also made of win:]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Orphan:''' "We are the Abandoned One, born but now to die. Our name is Orphan. By our hand, the world shall know redemption."]]
* Lightning's final speech to [[spoiler:Orphan]] before initiating the final battle and capped off by the opening line in said battle (provided that she's the party leader):

* Hope is an instant away from [[spoiler: killing Snow]]. Then there's an explosion, and Hope [[spoiler: gets knocked off the side of the building.]] What's Snow's response? Without even thinking about it, he [[spoiler: drops off the side of the building, grabs Hope, and cradles his body with his own to shield him as they fall through multiple panes of glass and hit the ground.]] ''That'' is what it means to be a hero: [[spoiler: to save the ones who want to kill you]]. Then, when Snow recovers, despite being so badly wounded he can barely walk, [[spoiler: he puts Hope on his shoulders, pockets Hope's knife, and then proceeds to haul him across the city.]] That is where Snow went from a [[IdiotHero well-intentioned idiot]] to a true ''hero'' worthy of the title. See the whole scene [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9lbz1fqcNQ here]].

* A truly underrated example in Chapter 10: As you waltz through the Fifth Ark, you come across [[spoiler: Cid Raines]]. Shortly afterward, Lightning assumes he's a traitor and attacks him. By this point, Lightning has proved herself as a very capable ActionGirl but when she attacks [[spoiler:Cid Raines]], he stops her strikes ''barehanded'' (he has gloves, but still), briefly takes her gunblade, and sent her flying. In other words... he just [[CurbStompBattle curbstomped]] '''Lightning'''.
** In addition, [[spoiler: the revelation that he's a l'Cie, and the [[ThatOneBoss immediate boss fight]], show that Cid Raines is truly an underrated character.]]
** If you're paying attention to his hand [[spoiler: just before he invokes the barrier of Lindzei crests, you'll see his brand ''accelerating''. From the way it looked, it could not have been any further than the third stage; given how it was all but invisible, it's entirely possible it was in its first. It speeds through to the thirteenth in a matter of ''seconds''. Which means either Cid quickened it out of sheer ''willpower'', or he made Barthandelus '''panic''' and cut his time limit early thinking his Cie'th transformation would be one of the mindless things you see in Eden at the end of the game. Either way qualifies as awesome.]]
* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6auT2NC0oY this scene]] after finally killing [[spoiler:[[BigBad Barthandelus]]]], the party looks on in awe as he melts away into the abyss. Everyone except [[EnsembleDarkhorse Sazh]], that is. [[MemeticBadass He]] has one thing to say:

* When you first arrive on [[spoiler:Gran Pulse]], you see a number of Adamantoises slowly walking across the land. Then as the camera pans back, an ''even-larger'' hand shadows the giant turtle-dinosaur as it futilely tries to 'run', before it's grabbed... then we see it belongs to Titan, a fal'Cie so big [[NotHyperbole he could qualify as a mountain]]. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment Then he nonchalantly swallows the Adamantoise]] ''[[EstablishingCharacterMoment whole.]]''

* The Zenobia hunt. A vicious-looking Cie'th with writhing tentacles for fingers emerges from the ground and prepares to do battle with the party... [[spoiler:and then off-screen, a Tonberry rushes in at high speed, and kills the Cie'th in ''one hit'' with its knife. The subsequent battle subsequently confirms that Tonberries have [[TookALevelInBadass taken significant levels in badass]], going from a MightyGlacier to a LightningBruiser]]. The effect is increased after you've played ''XIII-2'', wherein [[spoiler:a paradox-displaced Zenobia fights Serah and Noel. Even being (presumably) toned down due to being a mandatory fight in the middle of the story instead of a BonusBoss, Zenobia can qualify for ThatOneBoss.]]

* The ending is one big Moment of Awesome in that Vanille and Fang manage a big ScrewDestiny by becoming Ragnarok as predicted but performing a HijackingCthulhu [[spoiler:with some DivineIntervention Help from Etro the Goddess herself]] and using Ragnarok to save Cocoon from destruction like they wanted instead destroying it as predicted, pulling off a miracle they always spoke of.

* The ending is one big Moment of Awesome in that Vanille and Fang manage a big ScrewDestiny by becoming Ragnarok as predicted but performing a HijackingCthulhu [[spoiler:with some DivineIntervention Help from Etro the Goddess herself) and using Ragnarok to save Cocoon from destruction like they wanted instead destroying it as predicted, pulling off a miracle they always spoke of.

* The ending is one big Moment of Awesome in that Vanille and Fang manage a big ScrewDestiny by becoming Ragnarok as predicted but performing a HijackingCthulhu and using Ragnarok to save Cocoon from destruction like they wanted instead destroying it as predicted, pulling off a miracle through sheer willpower.

* [[spoiler: Orphan gets one at the end with his DynamicEntry accompanied by CrowningMusicOfAwesome. His speech before the fight, with his VoiceOfTheLegion is also made of win:]]