History Awesome / SaintsRow2

** It's even more impressive when you recognize the context. The main character is avenging the death of Carlos, who's basically an honorary little brother or even son to the Boss. It's PoeticJustice when you realize that Maero forced you to MercyKill Carlos so you force him to kill his girlfriend.

* Dane Vogel gets his when Maero comes around a second time, trying to threaten him and demand more favors from Ultor. What does Vogel do? He calmly insults Maero (a man who had nearly dropped him out of the window and into his death in his prior visit) to his face, and then reveals that squad of heavily armed security have Maero in their sights. And just to put cherry to the top, he reveals that Ultor has hijacked shipment of Brotherhood goods Maero was expecting before practically shooing him away]]. The man can be [[SmugSnake annoying]], but that moment was full of awesome.

* A lot of the minigames are built around CrazyAwesome. Vehicle surfing, Insurance Money, spraying sewage on everything, and more.

'''Maero:''' Go to hell.\\

* Gat has committed 387 murders and 1 attempted murder, meaning he's ''never failed to kill a person before that one''.
** Surviving [[OneManArmy Johnny]] [[BloodKnight Gat]] is pretty amazing when you consider it. [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome We may not know how he did it,]] but kudos to [[spoiler:Troy]] for somehow pulling it off.
* The ambush at Aisha's house is a truly vicious shootout. It's just the Boss and Johnny Gat against perhaps a dozen Ronin killers, many armed with machine guns. The Boss' teamwork with Johnny is pure [[CombatPragmatist combat pragmatism]], as each kills enemies in their respective blindspots, ''while'' Johnny duels Jyunichi. It ends with Johnny impaled by a katana, only to slam the enforcer on both sides of the head with his fists, stunning him while the Boss reloads their pistol. Jyunichi barely escapes with his life.
** And when the Boss came back to settle the score, Jyunichi loses the sword fight against him even though he had a bunch of Ronins as back up and probably way more experience with a katana than the Boss.
* Gat's "get up" sequence with Shogo Akuji at the cemetery. Specifically, Gat beats the hell out of the Ronin leader's son, not just for [[spoiler: giving the order to kill Aisha]], but '''especially''' for deciding to attack him and the Boss [[spoiler: at his girlfriend's funeral]]. He finishes the kid off by [[spoiler: emptying a nearby casket and stuffing him inside, proceeding to [[BuriedAlive bury him alive]].]]
** Boss gets one by... not saying a damn word, and only drags Shogo to Gat. The Boss is normally a TalkativeLoon, but both he/she and Gat are in a state of TranquilFury because of the seriousness of Shogo's actions, and just leaves the bereaved to do his thing.
** Also, this is the one time where we see The Boss give deference to Gat, who normally lets the Boss do all the killing of their enemy leaders. It must be noted that the normally kill-happy Johnny Gat had [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness earnestly offered Shogo the chance to walk away with his life]], if only he'd leave them alone to grieve. That Shogo [[TooDumbToLive keeps pushing for a fight anyway]] is what earns him this horrible fate.
* How about Johnny fighting off an army of Ronin to protect Wong? The man is a literal walking, talking, crowning moment, enough so to make glasses badass.
* The climax of the Ronin mission where you go with Johnny to storm a Ronin hotel and blow it sky high. After clearing all the floors and setting all the charges, how do you get out quickly enough without being caught in the explosion? Simple: You do something straight out of a James Bond movie and base-jump off the top floor's balcony and parachute down as the place explodes all around you.
** [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Alternatively, if you've unlocked the 'No damage from falls' ability, you could ignore the parachute and just faceplant the ground.]]

* The whole mission "The Siege". You finally decide to cut the bullshit and go take down Maero and the Brotherhood in an attack on their compound at the docks and confront a minigun-wielding Maero on the roof. The cutscene that follows is a brutal, relentless brawl between the Boss and Maero, which even if it isn't playable, is one of the most epic moments of the game, especially considering that both characters have extremely valid reason to hate each other's guts.
** Extra bonus points: Maero has a minigun while the Boss doesn't. The Boss is still able to win!
* A smaller one before that is the mission "The Enemy of my Enemy", in which Boss sneaks on board of the ship containing Maero's shipment. After killing the Ultor security personnel, the ship is attacked by waves of Brotherhood enemies from boats and boats. Boss has to fight them off. Fortunately for them, the shipment in question is a fuckload of weapons.
* The entire premise of ''Saints Row 2'' is a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome. Basically, you don't have a penny to your name when you escape from prison and proceed to dismantle three of the most powerful gangs in the world along with their mega-corporation sponsor. It's like the Kingpin's version of ''Born Again.''

* Your character makes the Brotherhood leader, Maero, unintentionally [[spoiler: run over his girlfriend, Jessica, with a monster truck.]]
** It's even more impressive when you recognize the context. [[spoiler: The main character is avenging the death of Carlos, who's basically an honorary little brother or even son to the Boss. It's PoeticJustice when you realize that Maero forced you to MercyKill Carlos so you force him to kill his girlfriend.]]
* The entire Brotherhood arc is just brilliant. What makes it so good is how quickly it degenerates. It starts out looking like it's going to be the most "civil" gang war in the game, as in a "may the best gang win" kind of thing, as Maero tries to form an alliance with the Saints. Then you hear the terms of his proposal. He gets 80% of the weapons shipment and the Saints get 20%, and by extension, about 20% of the city. From there it degenerates into the most violent, personal, brutal, and outright vicious gang war in the entire game, if not the series. [[spoiler:The Boss responds to the insulting offer by blowing up Brotherhood trucks and putting radioactive waste in his tattoo ink, burning his face. Maero and his girlfriend, Jessica, respond by chaining the Boss' protege, Carlos, to the back of a truck and towing him through Stilwater face-first. When the Boss rescues him, they're then forced to put him out of his misery. The Boss gets revenge by locking Jessica in the trunk of a car and placing it in a monster truck rally Maero is participating in, then taunting him about it. They also cripple his best friend's hand and so and so forth.]] It's part of what makes the fist fight between them in "The Siege" so brutal and awesome, they both absolutely despise each other and with perfectly legitimate reasons on both sides.
* Dane Vogel gets his when [[spoiler: Maero comes around a second time, trying to threaten him and demand more favors from Ultor. What does Vogel do? He calmly insults Maero (a man who had nearly dropped him out of the window and into his death in his prior visit) to his face, and then reveals that squad of heavily armed security have Maero in their sights. And just to put cherry to the top, he reveals that Ultor has hijacked shipment of Brotherhood goods Maero was expecting before practically shooing him away]]. The man can be [[SmugSnake annoying]], but that moment was full of awesome.
-->[[spoiler:'''Maero:''' They hit my boys while they were on the prison bus!]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Vogel:''' Between your girlfriend and your gang, I'd say you're a magnet for tragedy, Maero.]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Maero:''' You think this is fucking funny!?]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Vogel:''' No, but I do think it's your problem.]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Maero:''' ''(Slams his hands down on the desk)'' ''My'' problems are ''your'' problems. Or do you need some fresh air to remind you?]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Vogel:''' No, see, ''my'' problem is that a sideshow freak is messing up my paperwork. ''Your'' problem is that there's a group of security guards with assault rifles pointed at your back.]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Maero:''' ''(Turns and sees the guards)'' Your security guards look more like a private army.]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Vogel:''' Call them whatever you want. The point is they have big guns. I'm sorry you couldn't protect your friends, I really am, but Ultor is done doing you favors. Come back here again, and I'll have you shot on sight.]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Maero:''' Go fuck yourself, Vogel.]]
** He gets another very subtle one when meeting Kazuo Akuji. Initially Kazuo asks Shogo, in Japanese, why he should care who Vogel is. Before Shogo can answer, Vogel rides in with his own reply, in English. He's not at all intimidated by Kazuo's reputation, and won't allow the Yakuza boss to insult him to his face simply by speaking another language. It's a nice "fuck you" to the pompous Kazuo, and only the second thing Vogel says to the man.
* The final fight with Maero opens with a brilliant moment of the Boss taunting Maero for confronting him alone only for him to respond with, "Who said I was alone." The stadium lights turn on showing the Boss surrounded by a dozen trucks with Maero in a ''Monster Truck''.

* The Sons of Samedi mission "Bad Trip" sees you fight off a massive Samedi attack on your hideout ''while so stoned you can barely see what you're doing''.
** The best part is that when you're stoned out of your mind, you actually ''pretend'' to be useless to get the villains to drop their guard long enough to escape. Yes, even when you're baked out of your mind, you're capable of being a ManipulativeBastard.
* A lot of the minigames are built around CrazyAwesome. Vehicle surfing, Insurance Money, spraying sewage on everything, and more.
** The final level of the Fight Club sections has you fight off six guys at once. You have to finish each and every last one of them off by ''[[NeckSnap breaking their necks.]]''
** The final level of the Drug Trafficking and Snatch sections is very, '''''very''''' chaotic and [[ThatOneLevel often]] [[ThatOneSidequest difficult]] [[EverythingTryingToKillYou to survive]]. That then means success requires being a badass.
--> '''Richie''': A for effort... But you're still [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] dead.

* The entire ''Secret Mission'' of ''Saints Row 2'' is one long SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome. You and Julius get a chance to go on one final team-up together, taking on what appears to be the entire Ultor Corporation military. [[spoiler: The tragedy when you avenge yourself on Julius, only makes the entire mission more awesome.]]

--> '''The General''': I took no pleasure in this, my friend. But a price needed to be paid for failure.
--> '''Mr. Sunshine''': Don't worry. I need only one ear to hear the whispers of the Loa.
* Pierce gets one for telling Johnny "387 Murders" Gat to fuck off for criticizing Pierce's plan to rob a casino (which, as it's the same plan from GTA:SA's casino robbery, we know would have worked). That's not the COA. The COA is that when Johnny tries to threaten him into shutting up, Pierce holds his gaze and starts to stand up. Unfortunately, they're interrupted by the news before we can see exactly what Pierce was planning to do.

** The best part is that when you're stoned out of your mind, you actually ''pretend'' to be useless to get the villains to drop their guard long enough to escape. Yes, even when you're baked out of your mind, you're capable of being a MagnificentBastard.

** Surviving [[OneManArmy Johnny]] [[BloodKnight Gat]] is pretty amazing when you consider it. [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome We may not now how he did it,]] but kudos to [[spoiler:Troy]] for somehow pulling it off.

* Gat's "get up" sequence with Shogo Akuji at the cemetery.
** Specifically, [[spoiler: at his girlfriend's funeral]], Gat beats the hell out of the Ronin leader's son for [[spoiler: giving the order to kill Aisha]]. He finishes the kid off by [[spoiler: emptying a nearby casket and stuffing him inside, proceeding to [[BuriedAlive bury him alive]].]]

*** Also the one time where we see The Boss give deference to Gat, who normally lets the Boss do all the killing of their enemy leaders. It must be noted that the normally kill-happy Johnny Gat had [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness earnestly offered Shogo the chance to walk away with his life]], if only he'd leave them alone to grieve. That Shogo [[TooDumbToLive keeps pushing for a fight anyway]] is what earns him this horrible fate.