Awesome / Sharpe

The TV series

• Patrick Harper gets his in Sharpe's Rifles, when he has been placed under arrest for mutiny. The Dragon (accompanied by two Mooks) kills his guards and suggests he change sides:
  Man in Black: I will give you one hundred guineas in gold, and safe passage to America.
  Harper: America? That'd be nice. But you see, sir, the King of England owes me last month's wages and I'd never be comfortable in America knowing that bastard owed me a shilling.
  Man in Black: You would die for a shilling?
  Harper: That's what I signed on to do, sir.
  • Harper isn't the one who ends up dying.
  • The moment that kick-starts the series - Sharpe single-handedly saving Wellington from three French cavalrymen.
• Sharpe's Eagle possesses a moment so badass it's continually referenced in-story, Sharpe taking a French Eagle (ie, a battle standard) at Talavera. Even more impressive, Sharpe and Harper end up doing this more or less by themselves, the Light Company offers a bit of covering fire, and Ensign Denny joins the fray eventually (mostly to be killed off), but otherwise, it's two guys against a hundred enemy Grenadiers, and winning.
  • Earlier on the story, when Wellesley unleashes the tactical nuke equivalent of a Shut Up, Hannibal! to the cowardly Sir Henry Simmerson.
    Simmerson: [trying to intimidate Wellesley into promoting his nephew] I have a cousin at Horse Guards, sir, and I have friends at court.
    Wellesley: [slowly looks up from his papers] The man who loses the King's Colours loses the King's friendship.
  • The cigar-chomping American Virginian loyalist Captain Leroy is literally a walking crowning moment of awesome in his own right, but without a doubt his finest moment is when he assumes command of the South Essex at the battle of Talavera, with the line: "Boys, let's load up and do some shootin'!"
  • Dobbs managing to set a company record by firing off four shots in a minute, while still recovering from 75 lashes! And he survives Talavera, too!
• Sharpe's successful storming of the breach at Badajoz at the climax of Sharpe's Company, an act badass enough to secure his promotion to Captain, and fuelled by a combination of pride, his love for Teresa and their daughter Antonia and Unstoppable Rage. Badajoz, by the way, is a fortress that has withstood every other attack the British have launched at it, and Sharpe and his fellows break it open by sheer force of will and battle-madness.
  • Harry Price, for once stone cold sober and straight-backed, singing a beautiful rendition of "Heart of Oak" as the troops march past him.
• The final battle scene in Sharpe's Enemy. Particularly when the rocket artillery let loose all hell on the French. Think Macross Missile Massacre combined with More Dakka.
  • It's even more bad-ass in the book, as the battle takes place over several days, and Sharpe's forces (about a full battalion, including the Rocket Troop) face off against a division-strength French army, including an artillery regiment and at least a dozen French infantry battalions. Sharpe ends up winning, party through the effective use of the terrain and his forces, but mostly by being a cheating son of a bitch.
• In Sharpe's Sword, Badass Preacher Father Curtis gets a big one when he stops Sir Henry from raping a young nun. Simmerson assumes that a single Irish priest will pose no threat, but forgets that Curtis was once known as the finest swordsman in all of Spain. A Curb-Stomp Battle ensues.
  Father Curtis: God forgive me, but I wish it had lasted longer. (cue Groin Attack)
• In Sharpe's Siege: Thanks to a plot of Ducos, Sharpe and co have to hold off an attack from the French in a fortress with its doors blown off and very little ammunition to fire their guns. They triumph, then rush back to confront the former commanding officer Colonel Bampfylde, who was admittedly tricked by Ducos but still abandoned the wounded and left them all to die. Captain Neil Palmer, one of the aforementioned wounded, bursts in during the midst of Bampfylde giving the 'good news' to Wellington, concisely summarizes what actually happened, and then:
  Wellington: Is that all, captain Palmer?
  Palmer: Ah, almost all, sir. (Proceeds to kick Bampfylde squarely between the legs in a truly magnificent Groin Attack, near doubling him over in pain.)
  • How did Sharpe manage to capture the fortress in the first place? He weaponized Harper's toothache. Rule of Cool doesn't even begin to cover it.

The books

• Sharpe's Triumph. Sir Arthur Wellesley is cut off from his forces and surrounded. Only one man stands before him and capture and/or death, namely Sharpe himself. Guess what happens next?
• Friendly Sniper Hagman proves just how dangerous the Baker Rifle is in Sharpe's Havoc when he snipes a French gunner at nearly 800 yards. Based on real life to boot!
• The third act of Sharpe's Trafalgar is one giant Crowning Moment of Awesome, with Cornwell's depiction of the Battle of Trafalgar one of his best battles yet, but Clouter's utter annihilation of a French boarding party attempting to seize HMS Victory using a carronade is a definite standout.
  "One moment there was a boarding party, the next there was a butcher's yard. The fallen yard and sail were drenched with blood, but the Frenchmen had disappeared, snatched into oblivion by the storm of metal."
• The entire sequence with Colonel McCandless in Sharpe's Tiger, when he uses his claymore that was carried for Charles Stuart at Culloden.
• Sharpe walking away after the flogging, an astonishing feat given the damage received.
• Sharpe bluffing his way through the Tipoo's "initiation", especially when he realizes that the rifle won't fire.
• Sharpe and Lawford blowing the mine at the end of Sharpe's Tiger. Notably an example for Lawford - while Sharpe goes to kill and rob the Tipoo Sultan, Lawford goes to defend a brothel from rapey redcoats.
• Sharpe's field promotion in Sharpe's Triumph. After years of third-hand accounts, that scene did not disappoint.
• Sharpe ripping his way through the Gawilghur fortress, especially when he and the Highlanders storm the ramparts, and he kills Dodd.
• Sharpe taking command of his old South Essex regiment one last time at Waterloo, and driving back the Imperial Guard at a critical moment.
• Achmed's Heroic Sacrifice.
• In Sharpe's Gold he ends up fighting a superior swordsman in El Catolico. Knowing that he's being toyed with, Sharpe decided to use an intended flesh wound in his favour by deliberately impaling his own leg on El Catolico's sword and rendering the sword useless. Things then get worse for El Catolico.
• In Sharpe's Battle: Free Spain, Portugal, and England are saved by a countercharge of Irishmen and Scots.