Tyreese wades into the middle of a bunch of zombies after acting suicidal all day. He's later discovered alive, having taken out all of them, and casually greets the people who find him.
Carl killing three zombies single-handed.
In the No Way Out arc, Rick is holding off the zombies alone so that Carl has a chance. He's being overwhelmed. Cut to each of the members of the group seeing him fighting alone, and each one of them going out to help fight them. They win. In a series devoid of optimism, this doubles as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
Rick: All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anyone who gets in the way of that is gonna lose.
The last moments of the premiere when the hero, after getting surrounded by zombies because of his own stupidity (why were all those empty cars escaping the city?), hides in a tank. Over the radio, a voice says "Hey dumbass, you in the tank, are you feeling cozy now?" Music plays as it cuts to a camera above the tank moving up to show just how many zombies are around it.
Glenn racing out of Atlanta in the sports car is certainly awesome.
Doubles as a CMOF.
Proving that even racist dickheads can be awesome, Merle cuts off his own hand to escape being cuffed to a rooftop, takes out at least two walkers - singlehandedly - while bleeding heavily, then cauterizes his wound before leaving the building he was trapped on from an upper floor and making his way out of town. Double the awesome when you realize he would have had to do this all quietly so as not to attract zombies.
In "What Lies Ahead", Lori's defense of Rick after some of the others start to question his leadership, asking if any of them think they could do a better job.
Maggie riding on horse back and cracking a walker in the skull to save Andrea.
With his snarky attitude, cool head in intense situations, badass crossbow, and being just crazy enough to be useful in a zombie outbreak, Daryl has proven himself to be a walking, talking awesome machine, including his actions in the episode "Chupacabra".
A downed zombie gets up and starts growling. Without breaking stride, Daryl mutters, "Shut up," and shoots an arrow through its skull.
Just to elaborate, in 'Chupacabra' alone: he falls off a cliff and gets impaled on a crossbow bolt, wakes up to see two zombies, beats one to death with a stick, then pulls an arrow out of his own side and kills the other one.
And then he climbs up a sheer cliff, all while still bleeding out the hole in his side. Not quite as impressive as the above, but still very awesome.
Glenn gets one in the episode "Secrets", taking out a zombie solo with the help of a piece of store shelving.
In the same episode, Andrea getting over her mental block regarding moving targets and mowing down several zombies until Shane has to yell at her that they can just leave now.
Earlier, when Shane is training Andrea to shoot a moving target, he angrily starts telling her that she needs to lock down her emotions or she'll never be able to make a clean shot. Andrea rebuts that he's losing control of his emotions too, so Shane draws, aims and bulls-eyes the swinging stump in less than a second.
Shane finally breaks everyone out of their complacency in the mid-season 2 finale, showing Hershel that the Walkers are dead, killing all the zombies in the barn with the help of Glenn, T-Dog, Andrea, and Daryl, and finally figuring out what happened to Sophia
What really makes the scene is how Shane demonstrates that the Walkers are dead, by repeatedly shooting one of the ones that Hershel is attempting to capture in what would be increasingly vital areas to a living human, almost screaming a demand to know why the Walker is still moving after every shot.
Andrea finishing off the walkerfied Annete with a scythe in the opening of "Nebraska", complete with with meaty crunch.
Rick crazy awesome quickdraw against the two creepy randoms from out of town. As soon as the first guy goes for his gun, Rick draws, shoots him in the head, turns and puts two in the big guy so fast he can only fire his shotgun in the air uselessly. Rick then finishes big guy off with a shot to the head.
Hershel shooting a gunman at night after he fired at Glenn, weighing up whether he could spare the attacker before he finally put him down.
No matter what you think of Shane, his No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of Ed for abusing his wife and trying to hurt the other women is a deeply satisfying scene, one that many people would want to replicate with real life abusers.
Hershel telling Shane to shut up, saying that the only reason Shane's still on the farm is because Rick persuaded Hershel not to kick him off, but that he would if Shane pushed him any further.
Rick and Shane finally throwing down during "18 Miles Out".
Rick saving Shane from the bus, by leaning out of the window while another survivor drives, headshotting zombies as he passes. When they burst the head of a zombie like a melon by driving over it, the moment just becomes all the sweeter.
Rick headshotting a zombie through the mouth of one he already killed.
The ending to "Better Angels" is Holy Shit Quotient to the max. First, Rick killing Shane in a self-defensive move, then an EPIC shot of a GIANT swarm of walkers coming toward the farm, all the while awesome music cues in the background.
The brutal zombie killing in the opening when the gang goes out hunting, including Andrea taking one out with a pitchfork through the jaw.
Andrea being saved by the hooded stranger at the end of the Season 2 finale. Fans of the comic will automatically identify this person as Michonne.
Before this point, Andrea proves that she's made it to badassery by escaping through the horde of walkers and escaping them on foot for, based on the timeline, at least 12 hours. By the time the above action happens, she's only still not killing them because she'd apparently run out of ammo and was too exhausted to continue. The actress playing Andrea mentioned on the Talking Dead show that actually filming the scene was almost as long and gruelling.
The final shot of Season 2 showing that the group is close to a prison, promising that the next season will adapt what is easily the comic's most popular storyline.
Also from the finale, Herschel picking off walker after walker with a shotgun, never flinching and never falling back, because he's just that determined to protect his farm. He only retreats when he runs out of ammo and Rick convinces him that staying is no longer an option.
Speaking of Rick, there's also him and Carl leading a part of the herd into the barn and then setting them on fire. If nothing else, this is a CMOA for production — that last shot of the burning barn is just epic.
Season 3 has shown that even though the Ricktatorship has begun, the group is tighter than ever because of it. Using military formations and following Rick's orders to the letter allowed the group to take the prison, almost hassle free.
This is exemplified by their clearing of an infested house without a word, complete with Carl going point man and headshotting a zombie.
Just in case you forgot how badass her introduction at the end of the second season was, our first sight of Michonne in Season 3 has her lop two zombies heads off, with one swing of her katana.
After Hershel has been bitten on the leg by a walker, Rick acts quickly and decisively, incredibly calm at the time, to amputate his leg with a nearby axe. He had literally seconds to save his friend's life, and managed to achieve the first on screen saving of a bite victim.
"Shit Happens". Cue Rick delivering a machete to Tomas' skull.
Oscar gets one when Rick is pointing a gun at his head and asking why they should let him live after Tomas and Andrew tried to kill Rick. In comparison to Axel, who was sobbing and pleading for his life, Oscar remains completely calm and tells Rick that he will not beg for his life, and for Rick to do whatever he thinks he has to do. Considering the fact that he had just seen the man drive a machete into Tomas' head, that must have taken some Brass Balls. And it works!
One-legged Hershel beaning an advancing Walker with his crutches.
When a desperate Rick, Glenn and Daryl run into the center of the prison after Andrew opens it up , Daryl takes out a walker by leaping at it, grabbing its shoulders and driving a knife into its head in one swift movement. This is immediately followed by Glenn slicing a zombie's head in two sideways.
Oscar gets another one when he saves Rick by shooting Andrew in the eye, having already broken up the fight by throwing a big barrel at Andrew.
Having been bitten, an unarmed T-Dogthrows himself into a pair of walkers to buy Carol a way to escape.
Rick's solo rampage through the prison with an axe after Lori's death..
Michonne letting out six walkers from their cage in Woodbury, then slicing and dicing them up with her katana, Kill Bill style.
Michonne knows that she's being followed by Merle and some men, so she kills a zombie and uses its parts to spell a message to leave her alone. When they don't, she drops down from a tree nearby and kills two of them with her katana, running off with Merle only being able to land a flesh wound on her.
While roaming around the prison, Daryl, Oscar, and Carl all step inside a cell. When they hear a telltale Walker moan, they all three whip around in a flash, and utterly annihilate said Walker.
In "When The Dead Come Knocking" after Glenn has been kidnapped by Merle, Glenn has a walker thrown at him while he's tied to a chair. Glenn kicks its ass, ultimately finishing it off with a broken piece of the chair.
In a similar situation in the same episode, Maggie is forced by the Governor to take her top off. He then bends her over a table and makes it seem like he is going to rape her. Maggie's response? "Do what you have to do." The Governor then backs off.
Glenn tearing the bones out of a walker's arm for makeshift weaponry.
Carl going into the tunnels alone and saving Tyrese's group, then immediately locking them apart from the others until they can be properly screened to be trustworthy.
A minor one comes from Carol in season 3, when she catches friendly-yet-shady prisoner Axel hitting on seventeen-year old Beth. Without any hesitation, she gets him away from her and tells him, in no uncertain terms, to keep his pervy mitts off Beth. Keep in mind that this is a woman who started the series as an abused, timid housewife, and now she's threatening a felon who might very well be lying (as far as the group knows) about why he was in jail in the first place.
Rick and Maggie pulling a Big Damn Heroes by storming Woodbury's arena with assault rifles and tear gas, completely taking out most of the town and causing walkers to be released in the chaos. Merle and Daryl then easily make a break for it, having been show-fighting to delay the Governor just shooting them.
During the chaos, Daryl grabs his crossbow from the Mook using it and smacks him in the face with it.
Merle was the one who smacked the Mook with his metal plating "hand" as they were running away.
Rick pistol whipping Merle, so he'll shut up.
The Governor casually taking out walkers when Rick's group attacks, and later, dealing with a member of his town who'd been bitten, while everyone just looks on. He strolls up, puts a bullet in the man's brain, and then strolls away. Without blinking.
Glenn throwing an attacking walker to the ground without a second's hesitation, then taking out some pent-up anger by stomping it's head into paste.
"Home" is basically Daryl awesomeness everywhere. From yanking an attacking Walker out of a van, and crushing his head with the tailgate, telling off Merle, and saving Rick from a Walker with a headshot.
To clarify, Daryl almost single-handedly saves a family of four strangers from a pack of walkers, and then threatens to put an arrow through Merle's neck when the latter threatens the family and tries to steal their supplies. He then tells Merle that he no longer needs him, and decides to return to Rick's group with or without him.
Daryl: You lost your hand because you're a simple-minded piece of shit!
It's hard to admit, but the Governor's assault on the prison was cool. Sneaking a man onto a guardtower and more into the trees, he then pumped the prison full of bullets, both as an onslaught and to attract walkers. The final piece of his plan is to have a man in light body armor drive a truck through the prison gate and release its cargo: a pack of walkers. Result: Axel dead; Rick, Merle and Daryl trapped outside the prison; his enemies' severely depleted on ammo and their main defense against walkers ruined.
Andrea walking through a horde of walkers with her nicknamed guardian angel - a walker whose arms and jaw she removed with a hatchet and a stone, and directed by a pole - to get into the prison. Her only weapon is the hatchet, and she's doing all of this to secure the beginnings of a peace treaty, without The Governor's knowledge. Say what you will about her, but that takes balls.
Michonne giving Andrea a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, about how much she willingly deluded herself about the kind of man the Governor was, to the point of betraying her friend.
Michonne: You chose a warm bed over your friend.
Carol telling Andrea to have sex with the Governor, then stab him while he's sleeping.
Carl sneaking up on Morgan and putting a bullet in his side.
In a dark sort of way, the sheer crazy defenses Morgan put into his base. He places rats in cages on barrels surrounded by stakes to attract, impale and trap walkers. He attacks outsiders from rooftops with a scoped assault rifle, a metal helmet and a bulletproof vest. He places a trip wire in his house that releases a fireaxe to swing through curtains into an intruder. And best of all, the "welcome" mat on his porch covers a pit filled with stakes.
That's the part that makes him awesome. Want to know what makes him Crazy Awesome? The door at the bottom of the stairs says "turn around". The sheet says "not shitting you". The axe says "told ya".
Michonne and Carl fighting their way out of a zombie-filled cafe. And when they have to leave behind the reason Carl was there in the first place, the one remaining picture of Lori, Michonne tells him to just stay there, and somehow returns with it in just seconds.
Daryl and Martinez's zombie killing competition. Martinez effortlessly caves in walkers' skulls with his baseball bat, then Daryl shows off with his crossbow and steals a kill from Martinez by throwing a knife into a walker's skull.
Andrea finally being unable to hide from the kind of person the Governor is after learning about his sexualized mental torture of Maggie. Her decision to stay behind with them seems to be some sort of "inside man", with the hope of saving at least some innocent lives, and the next episode shows her damn near succeeding in helping the prison team out.
In a subtle sort of way, Milton revealing that he's compiling a history of what happened after the apocalypse, including asking the prison survivors what happened to them and details about Hershel surviving his bite and amputation. He's a man who can completely look past present difficulties, and try to look forward to building a culture for tomorrow.
The entirety of Andrea fleeing Woodbury to warn the prison. She takes down three walkers while pinned to a tree and with just an itty bitty knife, and then manages to unleash over a dozen on The Governor when he had her cornered in a warehouse. Hell, she made it to the prison, and the sheer effort of doing that all on foot shows off her Badass status. Of course, that it fails on account of The Governor being Made of Iron was just plain cruel, but her quest no less awesome.
The Governor taking on a dozen walkers swarming him alone in a warehouse, armed with a shovel and a pistol
Milton burning the walkers in the pit to prevent The Governor from unleashing them on the prison.
Tyreese putting Allen in his place by suspending him over a walker pit, after the latter has spent all his screen time acting like a complete shit.
Michonne. Bound to a beam by Merle,, she kicks a walker down then stomps its head in, then beheads another advancing Walker with the wire she was tied up with.
Merle takes a moment to relax, sipping whiskey in a car listening to Motörhead, with walkers swarming around his car. So he then lures a huge cadre of Walkers to the Governor's encampment at the mill, and guns down several of his men while disguising his shots among his foes' gunfire. He comes very, very close to killing the Governor.
Merle's last words after getting beat down by the Governor, having two fingers bit off, and moments away from death?
Hershel leaving a highlighted Bible verse for the Governor to read in the prison in "Welcome to the Tombs".
"And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."
Milton's very calm instructions to Andrea when he's been fatally stabbed in the abdomen, and they've been locked in a room together while the latter's been handcuffed to a chair.
Milton: "And when you get free you are going to find something very sharp and you are going to stab me in the head, that is what you are going to do."
Milton: "I am still here, I am still alive. You need to hurry…
Carol slicing a zombie's head in two with a machete, and Beth skewering another's on a bar, when they're closing the gates.
The prison group's counterattack on Woodbury's last attack on the prison. They let the latter storm into the prison, wasting plenty of ammunition taking out the zombies in the yard. Then they lure them into the corridors which haven't been completely cleared of walkers, then flashbang them, fire their rifles and set off the prison alarms, having clearly learnt from Andrew's attack. The result: the Woodbury group run out of the prison completely demoralised and panicked, leaving behind men, several of their own dead and weapons, while Glenn and Maggie fire on them to encourage them, all while decked out in riot squad protection.
Video Game
The Telltale Game series
Lee at the motel, taking out each and every zombie out stealthily.
If you side with Kenny when Larry threatens to toss out Duck under the suspicion of him being bitten (and he clearly wasn't), Lee will dare Larry to try and toss the poor kid out, but warns him that he'll have to go over Lee's dead body first.
Near the end of episode 1, just when Lee is on the ground, about to get horribly eaten by the living dead, who else but Kenny comes charging back in and saves him with the fire axe Lee gave him before. Needless to say, players were grateful.
Near the end of episode 2, Lilly potentially has her own Big Damn Hero moment, too.
Carley is walking Awesome (except where batteries are concerned). She is a crack shot with her pistol and she uses it to deadly effect on several occasions.
In Episode 3, her biggest Crowning Moment of Awesome and unfortunately her last was telling off Lily when the woman accused her of stealing food and medicine to give to the bandits, despite being right (though the truth wasn't revealed until later). Carley, sick of Lily's bullshit, gives her one of the best The Reason You Suck Speeches yet:
"You think you're some tough bitch, don't you? Like nothing can hurt you, but you're just a scared little girl. Get the fuck over it. Take a page out of Lee's book and try helping somebody for once."
How she defended herself against Lily when Lily accused her of being related to the bandits.
"Whoa, my family's not a bunch of meth-riddled forest people. They're fucking Lutheran!"
If Lee refuses to kill Danny, he angrily retorts that it's not the way the world is, regardless of Zombie Apocalypse. Similarly, Lee screaming at Andrew, "IT'S OVER!" - and breaks his spirit by screaming once more, "I SAID, IT'S OVER!", and walking away, breaking Andrew's spirit.
Lee gets another in episode 3. He single-handedly holds off both bandits and walkers when they invade the motel long enough for the entire group to get into the RV and escape.
Even Duck gets one in Episode 3. He offers to help you look for clues about the stolen supplies. Not only is he very helpful, but you can acknowledge his efforts with a high-five, causing a message to appear saying: "Duck thinks you are incredibly awesome!" It's fair to say that Duck is officially Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. Before he died, that is.
According to Carley, Doug also got a (sadly off-screen) Crowning Moment of Awesome when he saved her from a horde of zombies attacking their film crew's van. Not bad for a quiet, awkward nerd.
Depending on your choices, you can get this out of Lily:
"He knew who you were, he treated you like shit and you still tried to save him. The last thing you have to do is apologise."
Clementine, if you take her to Crawford, makes an amazing shot and saves Molly's life from a walker. Carley would be proud.
Alternately, if you leave her in the house and let her keep a gun, you'll return to find that a walker got in, but she killed it before it could get upstairs to hurt her or Omid.
Lee kills about a dozen walkers in the stairwell at Crawford with a shotgun and later a hatchet. Cut off from the others, he retreats up the stairs, gets his leg trapped in a broken stair, manages to save himself and then get back to the group, backstabbing every walker in between him and them.
Molly taking out a group of zombies by herself, stabbing them gracefully only with her climbing pick.
Molly also gets one from her first appearance. She can potentially deck Lee if the player fails a rather difficult QTE, and then effortlessly disarm Kenny (who was armed with a gun and flanking her) with a leg sweep.
For the player, being quick enough to beat the QTE with Molly.
Chuck holding off several zombies with a shovel to save Clementine. This costs him his life.
Lee marching down a crowded Savannah street, with just a meat cleaver, a guitar solo in the back, and a look on his face that is the picture in the dictionary next to Determinator. He can potentially make it through completely unscathed.
It's even more badass if Lee has his arm removed. He LITERALLY takes on an army of zombies one handed and *wins*.
And if you didn'tcut off Lee's arm, he grabs a piece of broken glass bare-handed, to use as a weapon while his own blood drips down his arm.
And lets not forget how Clementine handles her kidnapper. She quietly sneaks out of the room, grabs Lee's meat cleaver, and slices the guy just as he's telling his wife's zombified head that she "wouldn't hurt a fly".
Even MORE badass if you tell her to grab something else. A struggle ensues and Lee fights the guy to the death, and he can either do so with his bare hands (or even one handed), or Clementine takes his gun and saves Lee with a single shot.
If Ben's still around in Episode 5, he eventually stands up to Kenny and just lays into the guy. The whole rant is a mix of this and Tear Jerker, and the best part? He actually gets through to Kenny. Depressed, guilt-ridden, burdensome Ben actually gets Kenny to listen to someone else for once.
Alternatively, if Ben died in Episode 4, Kenny performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save Christa from walkers.
Clementine gets an offscreen moment at the end of Episode 5: When the sepsis (or whatever is killing him) finally catches up with Lee, and he collapses in the street, it leaves Clementine surrounded on all sides by the herd. No one would have faulted her for just freaking out and running away at that point—especially since she's just seen her parents as walkers. But what does she do? She keeps it together, and then this nine-year-old drags the dead weight of an unconscious grown man to shelter without alerting the herd in the process.
And then she escapes the city all by herself. Sure she's a badass little nine year old girl, but she's still a nine year old girl who just found out her parents are gone and her only guardian she had left as well, and she still had to wade through the city of Savannah and escape into the countryside all on her own.
And again, just a while later, when Lee's dying words are instructions and advice to Clementine. The fact he was still alive and not zombified just by sheer will is this, mixed with Tear Jerker.
Meta-example, but the game has won the 2012 Video Game Awards "Best Game of the Year" award. A Crowning Moment of Awesome for Telltale Games.
Even better, it won GOTY when facing up against financial and critical juggernauts like Mass Effect 3, Halo 4 and Black Ops 2. The fact that a downloadable episodic adventure game from a smaller studio won isn't just a CMOA for Telltale, it's one for the whole gaming industry.
The success of the game has also marked a turning point for the otherwise waning Adventure Game genre, which had been stagnent since LucasArts' departure in the 1990s. Combined with the impressive funding of Double Fine Adventure, the genre is expected to see a growth in the near future.
Players may have the option of delivering this line at the end of episode 4. For those who aren't too fond of Kenny, it may be one of the most satisfying lines in the whole game.
"You know what, Kenny? Go fuck yourself. You gonna let a little girl die just because I didn't have your back every damn minute? Maybe you should grow the fuck up! Do whatever you want, asshole."
Admittedly Ben stops being too much of bad luck guy in episode 5. He was about to chop off lee's arm to stop his infection but refused when he was awake, understandable since he would faint. he got the elevator door open when lee was unconscious. he also helped shoot the walkers in the mansion. he picked up lee's gun when he dropped it. stands up for himself against Kenny(though mentioned above). Oh and to be honest in episode 2 he tells the whole group about what actually causes you to become a walker. Poor kid does deserve some credit.
also in episode 5 if you chose to bring just Ben along he will actually save Lee if he misses the jump from the bell tower.
Survival Instinct
Daryl's dad having witnessed one of his friends getting mauled immediately begins shooting at the walkers until he runs out of ammo. That should tell you something about the Dixon family.
Everything that Merle does in this game, including:
Sniping from a rooftop like in the show
Taking out his old motorcycle gang when he realized they ratted him out
Gave Daryl his crossbow
Saved him at the last minute from a large herd of zombies when he tried to get aboard a rescue chopper
Daryl has these himself too. Taking out countless walkers, helping survivors and even rescuing a cat. That takes balls.
Most of the survivors you meet have already managed to survive the first few days of the outbreak and have basically holed themselves up in unreachable locations behind stacks of boxes or on the top of a roof.
Definitely the last part of the game where you not only get access to the assault rifle but can even use a tank-mounted machinegun to mow down the walkers.
Herd Mode: Your last stand, because the walkers will never stop coming
