History Awesome / MassEffect

* The First Contact War was one of the Systems Alliance, where they managed to hand the Turian Hierarchy, the preeminent galactic military power, their first major military defeat in over a millennium, crushing the fleet that took Shanxi.

** The First Contact War was one of the Systems Alliance, where they managed to hand the Turian Hierarchy, the preeminent galactic military power, their first major military defeat in over a millennium, crushing the fleet that took Shanxi.

* From ''[[Literature/MassEffectRetribution Retribution]]'', Kai Leng may be an incredibly [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain xenophobic]] and [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] [[{{Jerkass}} asshole]], but there is no denying that he is a badass. Before the story, the man killed a krogan with a knife in a BarBrawl and during the story's events, he kills six turians, by himself, and again with only a knife, [[spoiler: [[AssassinOutclassin showing off just how he beats Thane later down the line]]]].

* Shepard has, like, half the entries on this page. Well if one were to look at the character page they have one all to themselves. Detailing Shepard's exploits. How many characters full stop have their own page? It's a testament to just how awesome they are that Naruto, Batman, Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Buffy Summers, or anyone else had not hit that level of TroperCriticalMass.

* One would think it's impossible but not for Leopard Turret. He took the entire Mass Effect series and turn into a legit Sci-Fi series with an incredibly authentic opening. Here's the [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL61B5E0DC94526D3E link to the playlist]].

* In the prologue of ''[[Literature/MassEffectRevelation Revelation]]'', a young Anderson (recently promoted to N7 status and still a Lieutenant) had a conversation with Admiral John Grissom about the [[PoorCommunicationKills hostile]] [[FirstContact first contact with the Turians]]. In which in a CallForward, he basely gave a massive middle finger to Saren's "Is submission not preferable to extinction?" philosophy in regards to the Reapers (And perhaps in a way, [[spoiler:advocate the 'refuse' ending for ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'']]).

* Shepard has, like, half the entries on this page. Well if one were to look at the character page s/he has one all to themselves. Detailing Shepard's exploits. How many characters full stop have their own page? It's a testament to just how awesome s/he is that Naruto, Batman, Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Buffy Summers, or anyone else had not hit that level of TroperCriticalMass.

The Mass Effect Trilogy is a series of Crowning Moments of Awesome. For AwesomeMoments related to ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'', see [[Awesome/MassEffectAndromeda this page]].

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[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Mass Effect 1]]
* The Citadel first approach scene. When you at first only get a short glimpse through the clouds, and then you see the Citadel in its full glory while the soundtrack orchestra takes it to eleven. Rivals the "Thank you, Mr. Scott!" scene in Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture.
* The Spectre induction scene. Almost kind of an AwesomeMomentOfCrowning after the first few hours of gameplay...
* At the end of the game, [[spoiler:Shepard and his/her party land in the Citadel by going through a mass relay. Not special? They do it inside the Mako (a six-wheeled moon-buggy tank), killing numerous [[{{Mooks}} geth]] in the process]].
** While under heavy artillery fire and running out of time to reach the relay, and only surviving the experience because [[spoiler: they land upside down right on top of the armed guards on the other side of the relay]].
** And then the geth shut down the elevator to impede you. Instead of letting something trivial like that stop him/her, [[PlayerCharacter Shepard]] [[spoiler:shoots out the glass and starts fighting an army of geth ''up the side of the tower'']]. Complete with [[spoiler:Sovereign steadily getting larger and larger, looming overhead as you fight your way toward the top]]. Then, when you reach the end, [[spoiler:you get the chance to [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath convince]] Saren to ''[[BetterToDieThanBeKilled willingly shoot himself in the head]]'']].
** [[spoiler:The Intimidate option for this is especially awesome. The Charm option is pretty cool, convincing Saren to seek redemption -- but if you choose Intimidate, Shepard rolls out of cover, stares Saren down, appeals to the soldier in him, and tells him there's still one way out, if he's got the ''guts''. It's the moment when Shepard not only proves he's got what it takes as a Spectre, but the moment he surpasses Saren, his most dangerous rival, as a grade-A badass.]]
** The very end, [[spoiler:after you defeat ''Sovereign''. Debris fills the room, fires are everywhere, and the rescue crews are working their way inside. They come across your squadmates, who are dazed, shocked, and look as if they've just had their world crushed. [[TearJerker Quiet, sad pianos sound in the background]], and Shepard is nowhere to be found. The camera pans up to show the shattered windows and the massive piece of Sovereign lying around, and it suddenly seems as if Shepard really ''is'' dead. Then the music begins to rise, you see boots running on the floor, and right as the music hits an intense, heroic crescendo, Shepard climbs up into view.]]
** There's something extremely uplifting and heartwarming as Shepard climbs down from the rubble and smiles at his/her friends.
* [[spoiler:"Alliance ships, [[BigDamnHeroes move in]] - [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhgdudwYvYo save the Destiny Ascension!]]"]]
** [[spoiler:"It's [[TheFederation the Alliance]]!" "[[BigDamnHeroes Thank the Goddess!]]"]]
* The famous moment where Shepard punches a nosy reporter ''on live galactic television''.
** And if you take the option in [=ME2=], twice. It's even awesomer.
*** And in 3, ''she'' gets the chance to punch ''you''. Hilarious and awesome.
* Captain Kirrahe's epic "We will [[HoldTheLine hold the line]]!" speech. Quoted here in all its glory:
-->“You all know the mission, and what is at stake.
-->I have come to trust each of you with my life -- but I have also heard murmurs of discontent. I share your concerns.
-->We are trained for espionage; we would be legends, but the records are sealed. Glory in battle is not our way.
-->Think of our heroes; the Silent Step, who defeated a nation with a single shot. Or the Ever Alert, who kept armies at bay with hidden facts.
-->These giants do not seem to give us solace here, but they are not all that we are.
-->Before the network, there was the fleet. Before diplomacy, there were soldiers!
-->Our influence stopped the rachni, but before that we held the line!
-->Our influence stopped the krogan, but before that, we held the line!
-->Our influence will stop Saren; in the battle today, we will hold the line!”
** And [[spoiler:Kaidan or Ashley earn themselves a spot in Valhalla with a simple expression of bravery in the face of certain death. "I don't regret a thing, Commander."]] Still sends shivers up anyone's spine.
* Anderson [[spoiler:unlocking the Normandy]]. If he goes for C-Sec, he headbutts a turian guard in the face without even slowing down. If he goes for Udina's office, he punches Udina in the face. Either way, ''someone's'' face gets smashed, and either way, it's awesome.
* Joker gets one when he pilots the Normandy down to a planet to save the away party from a CollapsingLair. A CollapsingLair sinking into lava. He did some LampshadeHanging when he asks if he's going to get a silver or a gold medal for that.
** And again when, despite the rest of the crew's protestations that it's impossible, he maneuvers the ''Normandy'' close enough to ancient ruins to drop the Mako nearly ''right on top'' of Saren.
*** Bonus points for being the first time Joker understates his ability. His only comment is "I can do it".
*** It's worth highlighting the achievement here. Joker swoops from orbit to drop an APC through a gap in a collapsed roof into the middle of a street, without touching high walls either side, within spitting distance of Saren. It's like sniping with a spaceship as the gun and a tank as the bullet, which passes through a hole roughly three meters across while both it and the ship are traveling a few times the speed of sound. A flinch off course in any direction would have destroyed the tank and killed everyone in it. The Mako is completely unharmed.
*** Liara gets her own moment of awesome in that scene--she's the only party member present with the guts to agree with Shepard.
* When confronted on trying to develop a romantic relationship on two people at once by said two people, Shepard can offer a [[TakeAThirdOption third]] [[DoubleEntendre option]] instead of choosing between them.
* Each of the backgrounds has its own badass CMOA. War Hero has Shepard saving the entire colony of Elysium from an army of pirates and slavers by rallying the civilian population and then [[YouShallNotPass holding back an entire enemy platoon]] ''[[OneManArmy singlehandedly]]''? While only being on the planet for [[BusmansHoliday shore leave]] in the first place? Badass. Ruthless has you and your unit hunt slavers to the last man, despite taking immense casualties, taking a long time. Sole Survivor has you evade thresher maws after they wipe out your unit. This doesn't sound like much until you meet a thresher maw, which the military recommends you take on with tanks, and they are damn hard to survive even then.
* The cutscenes in the GrandFinale when [[spoiler:Sovereign takes control of Saren's corpse after it's been shot in the head]] and when [[spoiler:the [[TheCavalry entire Alliance Fleet]] heading towards and collectively destroying Sovereign]].
** In particular, [[spoiler:Joker zipping around in the small (compared to the rest of the Alliance fleet) Normandy, before flipping around and nailing the death blow on Sovereign.]]
** Also, in one of the first of the final cutscenes, [[spoiler:the mighty turian dreadnoughts all open fire. Sovereign simply ''rams'' the cruisers out of the way with such a force that the turian ships are destroyed immediately--and Sovereign is ''unharmed'' and continues as if nothing ever happened. It's hard to imagine a more effective way to emphasize how an evil Precursor like Sovereign sees the Council races as nothing more than insects.]]
* The Renegade ending, where ''humanity'' gets a CrowningMomentOfAwesome, presenting the fact that they saved the universe as a good reason to take it over.
* Any of the after-mission conversations with the Council where you opt to blow them off and "lose the signal." Doesn't seem that impressive? Keep in mind, you're blowing off the three most powerful people in the entire galaxy.
* [[spoiler:Disabling the Thorian-controlled colonists instead of killing them]] may be difficult (especially if you run out of grenades and have to resort to melee attacks), but seeing the "Paragon+ 32/Renegade+ 0" message at the end makes it all worth it.
** Prior to this, Ethan Jeong gets orders from his higher ups to LeaveNoWitnesses, and is going to go through with it. Shepard can Charm him out of it, but the Renegade option is much more satisfying.
-->'''Shepard:''': You're a bean counter, Jeong. I'm a Spectre. Tell me, how good are those odds?
* Followed by Jeong pretty much needing to swap into some brown pants where he stands, trying to convince himself that there's no human Spectres. Which, prior to Shepard, was the case, but even he doesn't want to take that chance.
* Players who chose the Earthborn background get a visit from a member of their previous gang attempting to blackmail them, which presents the opportunity for a particularly awesome Renegade solution:
-->'''Finch:''' When we're through telling our story, the aliens will all know what the first human Spectre really is!
-->'''Shepard:''' No. They won't. '''*BLAM*'''
* One of the other backgrounds has Shepard try and talk a slave out of suicide, having almost been a slave him/herself, which is a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming. Afterwards Shepard is asked by the officer concerned about the girl what the point is to fighting and we get this exchange.
-->'''Shepard:''' To make people who do these things pay. It's not the severity of punishment that deters crime, it's the certainty.
** If you succeed in that mission, you get an equally crushing line.
-->'''Talitha:''' [[Film/{{Aliens}} Will I have bad dreams?]]
-->'''Shepard:''' [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming You'll dream of a warm place. And when you wake up, you'll be in it.]]
** Renegade Shepard's option to that same question is equally crushing, especially if you've been following all the Renegade responses, telling Talitha to fight, to be strong, and that survival means she's tougher than she thinks she is.
-->'''Shepard''': I'm not going to lie to you. I don't know. But you're strong enough to face it.
* The climax of the DLC campaign "Bring Down the Sky" as a Renegade--rather than let Balak escape to save the hostages, Shepard attacks his gang and he kills the hostages. After Shepard has defeated Balak's henchmen and has him cornered--unarmed, wounded, and with a gun pointed at his head--they have this exchange;
-->'''Balak:''' I gave you a chance to save them and you threw it away! [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters Who's the real terrorist?]]"
-->'''Shepard:''' You. But you're dead. '''*BLAM*'''
** Also worth mentioning is if you take the same option, but then decide to spare him... [[CruelMercy so that the people on the planet that Balak tried to destroy, and from which the hostages came, can interrogate him and put him on trial]].
* After Shepard's interview with a TV reporter, a few of Shepard's possible dialogue options about the fallout of said interview is a worthy entry.
-->'''Shepard:''' With all due respect, she was going to twist my words no matter what I said.
-->'''Shepard:''' The Council can kiss my ass. I'm entitled to my own opinions.
* [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture The final act of the Prothean people.]] Those folks ''deserve'' a few ManlyTears.
* Sovereign[[spoiler:!Saren]] gets a villainous one as he prepares to attack you.
--> '''Sovereign''': I am Sovereign. And this station is '''''MINE'''''!
* The end speeches with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac9fLbXDWbw "The End (Reprise)]] playing over them. Especially the Paragon ending with the player choosing [[spoiler:Anderson]].
** Even Udina [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k94mL5KDbU got his own moment]] with this.
*** Though it is oft overlooked, Udina's speech to the council near the beginning may count as well. Shepard can even tag-team with him on calling the Council out on their crap with being so distrustful of humans.
* Get enough Paragon points, and Admiral Hackett calls you up to neutralize a hostage situation involving biotic terrorists. Perform the mission the Paragon way, and when he calls you up again, there's this exchange.
-->'''Hackett:''' I didn't think it could be done, Commander. You managed to secure the base and neutralize the biotics without a single civilian casualty.
-->'''Shepard:''' Just doing my job, Admiral. I couldn't let innocent lives be lost.
-->'''Hackett:''' I wish every soldier had your definition of "just doing your job." You're a credit to the uniform, Shepard.
* After fighting Saren on Virmire, he knocks Shepard down with biotics, picks him/her up by the throat, and dangles him/her over a ledge. Just before he can drop Shepard, Saren gets distracted by an explosion. He glances to one side, and Shepard punches him in the face. To reiterate in its full awesomeness: while being held over a cliff by his/her ''throat'', Shepard punches an elite soldier with far more training than him/her [[spoiler:and who is TheDragon to a race of EldritchAbomination ships that wipe out all life in the galaxy on regular basis]] ''right in the face''.
* You know Ian Newstead -- that crazy, rambling colonist in the tunnels on Feros? [[FridgeBrilliance Think about it after completing the game.]] [[spoiler:He's under control by the Thorian, but he ''knows'' he's being used by something against his will, so he gets away from people so he can't hurt them. He even tries to tell Shepard about the Thorian, and gets shocked by it. But he's strong enough to try again. And again. Finally, in order to prevent himself from being completely controlled, he regularly thinks about stuff the Thorian doesn't like, so it shocks him; this reminds him of who he is; or, as he puts it, "invoking the master's whip. Reminds me I'm still alive."]] That guy's got some [[HeroicWillpower serious guts]].
* Despite Saren being the BigBad for most of the story, Shepard can still get him to [[spoiler: have a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment and shoot himself in the head]]. Considering the amount of indoctrination Saren must have undergone, HeroicWillpower doesn't even begin to describe it. Even Matriarch Benezia wasn't able to resist it for long.
* The Renegade options during the sidequest to recover Narali Bhatia's corpse, if you choose to force Bosker to release the body. Going full Renegade ends with you literally threatening to shoot your way into the building to recover the corpse, which is crazy enough that Bosker caves in and releases the body. Alternately, you can play it reasonably and pick the Paragon options, right up until the last choice, where if you pick the blue Paragon choice and then the Renegade option, Shepard grabs Bosker by his jacket and yells "Is this what I'm fighting for? A government that ''steals the bodies'' of its honored dead?" Bosker will be so shamed that he immediately authorizes the body's release.
** Going other way, as a Paragon you can tell Samesh that Narali is still saving lives ''after'' she died.
* The Rogue VI mission on Luna (the Moon). Shepard flies to your (the player's) home solar system, lets you land on ''the damn Moon'', and the view is, not to put too fine a point on it, pretty damn cool.
** In a more subdued moment, note that this is the ''closest'' you get to landing on Earth in the entire trilogy, up until the third game. Earth may be important, but you- the player- have to focus on what's important not just for the homeworld, but for ''the entire galaxy.''
* The closing shot of ''1'' either has Shepard doing a heroic stance as a Paragon as seen in the Trope Image above, or [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5gtSB8MD4dk/maxresdefault.jpg staring at the viewer holding an SMG]] in the Renegade version, essentially saying BringIt to the Reapers.

[[folder: Mass Effect 2]]
* The ''entire'' suicide mission, ''[[CurbStompBattle especially]]'' [[CurbStompBattle if you made/make all the right decisions regarding the upgrades and team duties]]. [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits The team]] goes through the Omega-4 relay, which no one has gone through and survived. Joker not only navigates a [[AsteroidThicket debris field]] guarded by robotic drones, he does it well enough to make the drones crash. The ship that destroyed the original ''Normandy'' gets shot down with a weapon [[{{Irony}} reverse-engineered from Sovereign]]. A team works their way through heating vents, trusting Shepard to open gates before they fry to death. Shepard saves his/her crew from [[spoiler:being liquefied and made into raw material for a new Reaper]]. A team travels through an atmosphere literally ''filled'' with seeker swarms, with a biotic managing to keep the swarms away before blowing a mass of enemies. While Shepard leaves to blow the base, the rest of the team holds off waves of Collectors. [[spoiler:Shepard takes down a fetal Reaper, that thing that took just about every ship in the Alliance fleet to destroy, while ''on foot''.]] As it knocks down the platforms, s/he saves a squadmate while both of them are sliding down the platform. Shepard's team runs out of the exploding Collector base, with just about every single Collector pursuing them, while Harbinger delivers an epic speech. As Shepard approaches the ''Normandy'', Joker, who had trouble just ''walking'' in the first game, stands in the airlock, holding off Collectors with an assault rifle. The platform between the ''Normandy'' and Shepard collapses, so s/he jumps twenty feet in ''bulky assault armor'' to reach the door, is pulled up and saved by one of his/her squad members, followed by Joker and Shepard dashing for the cockpit to get away from the explosion, which ''[[UnflinchingWalk happens right behind the Normandy as it zooms out of there]]''. The ''Normandy'' returns from the Omega-4 relay, the galaxy saved (until ''Mass Effect 3''), with ''everyone'' safe and sound. Awesome.
** Another stand-out moment: mid-way through the final segment, you radio back to see how well your team is [[HoldTheLine holding against the Collectors]]. If your full team is loyal, whoever picks up will essentially reply that the [[ZergRush full might of the Collector attack]] is doing ''absolutely negligible'' damage.
*** When you use the Thanix cannon on [[spoiler:the Collector ship that destroyed the original Normandy]], Joker's exclamation of "How'd you like '''that''' you sons of bitches?!" was just pure awesome.
*** Overlaps with CMOH, but if everyone survives, Shepherd will walk past them all in the Normandy's cargo bay. Preparing weapons and kit, talking, healing wounds... and the ''look'' that they all give him. Or nod, or slight smile. As if all of them are saying, "We will follow you anywhere, sir. Hell, we just did..."
** The music. It takes a lot of effort to make "Because screw you, that's why" sound mythic. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAcWuw2pDpo Jack Wall managed it in just under five minutes]].
* The opening sequence is a work of art: [[spoiler:you control Shepard as the Normandy explodes around him/her, due to the damage sustained during the Collector attack]]. At one point, you must journey through a section of the ship that is exposed to space, and the game becomes eerily quiet as you look out into the void and pass several floating pieces of debris you can knock aside when you walk around.
** And at the end of that sequence, even as [[spoiler: the ship is literally being blown to pieces around them and Shepard is being bounced around like a rubber ball, they still manage to punch the button to close the life pod that Joker's in and eject it, saving his life.]]
* Let's take one of your recruitable squad members in the second game, Archangel. You learn that due to his [[VigilanteMan vigilante activities]] against the criminal element of Omega, the three biggest merc companies on the station have teamed up to take this guy down. He's holed up in a mansion and blown up all other options for them; the only access route they have is across the bridge, which means they're target practice for him. They tried flying a gunship over to attack him, but ''he shot it down''. When you infiltrate the merc companies, you'll find dozens, if not hundreds, of mercs and freelancers trading bullets with him, but no one's getting anywhere near him. Once the operation starts, you stab the mercs in the back and make your way to Archangel in order to extract him...[[spoiler: and find out it's none other than Shepard's old pal, Garrus.]] To sum it up: [[spoiler: Garrus]] has been holding off three entire merc companies, the freelancers they hired, and all their resources for days, holed up in a mansion, singlehandedly.
** Garrus's side-mission. It's longer than most of the other missions (Jacob's and Mordin's in particular) due to a mix of investigation, combat and dialogue, and even after you've already gotten the achievement for it, you get treated to a climax which involves an increasingly-deranged Garrus attempting to snipe Sidonis while you (in a Paragon game) talk with said target and keep your own head in Garrus' scope to save his life. Garrus listens to your conversation through a two-way radio, and when he finds out that Sidonis shows remorse for having wronged him, Garrus can't bring himself to pull the trigger. This entire scene also doubles as a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming.
** Very small, but he's even awesome as far as game mechanics go. The official guide for ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' ''strongly recommends'' that if you're going to play on [[NintendoHard Insanity]], Garrus is one teammate you should ''always'' have with you.
** When you ask the Illusive Man about Garrus, he will admit he disappeared a few months after Shepherd died and even Cerberus has not been able to find anything about him since then. Considering Cerberus intelligence networks are only outmatched by the Shadow Broker, that's quite the achievement.
* Khalisah al-Jilani returns in Mass Effect 2 for another round. If you punch her with the Renegade interrupt, Shepard says "I should have done that the first time we met!"
** On the flip-side of that, you can also go the diplomatic route, and when she starts winding up to pitch the good ol' "aliens let humans die for their own skins" tripe, Shepard gets a [[https://youtu.be/oAx2umJpiTg?t=194 particularly moving CMOA by cutting her off with a powerful, spine-chilling lecture:]]
---> '''Shepard''': [[spoiler: The turians lost twenty cruisers, figure each had a crew of around 300. The Ascension, the asari dreadnought we saved, had a crew of nearly 10,000.]]
---> '''Khalisah''': [[spoiler: But surely the human cost--]]
---> '''Shepard''': [[spoiler:[[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech The Alliance lost eight cruisers: Shen Yang, Emden, Jakarta, Cairo, Seoul, Cape Town, Warsaw, Madrid and yes, I remember them all. Everyone in the Fifth Fleet is a hero. The Alliance owes them all medals, the Council owes them a lot more than that. And so do you]].]]
** After that little exchange is over as you walk away, you hear her mutter: "Great, bullrushed on my own show."
** Or, if the Council died, Shepard states it was not a decision made lightly, and again makes the case that those who died deserve a lot more than the reporter's bias cheapening their deaths. No matter what, Shepard owns her, and if they're alive takes the Council to task as well.
*** S/he will say the same thing if s/he sacrificed the Alliance ships and you choose the Renegade response. You still get Paragon points for it.
** The Renegade responses are just as awesome. Shep gives her a tongue lashing about the realities of command and disrespecting the dead that leaves Kalisah on the verge of weeping.
* [[ProfessionalKiller Thane]]'s EstablishingCharacterMoment. Shepard and company spend an action-packed level blowing stuff up and slaughtering their way to the penthouse floor of a business building to reach a CorruptCorporateExecutive who is said to be the assassin's next target and therefore the best way of contacting him. Once Shepard and [[spoiler:Nassana]] start talking, a few strange noises rattle the remaining security, who get ordered to watch the remaining entrances. Unfortunately, Thane doesn't use doors--he drops from an airduct on the ceiling mid-sentence, kills the security guards, grabs one of their guns, catches his target, shoots her in the stomach, gently lays her on a desk... and proceeds to pray without looking at Shepard or missing a beat. All in about six moves. Even Miranda and Jack are impressed by that.
** If you pay attention, Shepard actually looks up at the ceiling briefly before the bad guys realize Thane's there, and essentially says, "''I'm'' not your problem right now.".
* [[spoiler:Legion's entrance.]] He's in a low-angle camera angle, with a mix of danger and awe-inspiring music, there's an absolutely ''awesome'' [[spoiler: [[StabTheScorpion Snipe The Husk]]]] moment, and then, his simple greeting: "[[WhamLine Shepard-Commander]]."
* Mordin gets one when you learn why the citizens of Omega are scared of him: [[spoiler:when one of the deadliest mercenary groups tried to shake down his clinic, he killed their thugs ''singlehandedly'' and put their corpses on display as a warning. He did it again when another merc group was dumb enough to try the same thing.]] Really, if BadassBookworm would be explained in dictionary, his picture would be included next to the definition.
** He gets another when he cures your plague-infected alien teammates (if they're there) and then [[SherlockScan works out exactly who you work for and a good guess at why you're there]] in the space of about fifteen seconds. And the only reason it takes him that long [[MotorMouth is he has to vocalize his thoughts.]] Oh and if you hack Samara or Thane into your party and bring them to Mordin, he's able to cure them in the blink of an eye as well. He's prepared for everything.
** One of his {{Bond One Liner}}s during combat is "[[NotSoHarmless Though I was harmless, did you?]]
* In the Afterlife club, Renegade Shepard can talk the Patriarch into one of these by appealing to his nature as a krogan. Instead of hiding from the mercenaries, he chooses to die like a true krogan warrior, and ''charges'' an entire squad of heavily-armed mercenaries, and thus goes out in a blaze of [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome (sadly offscreen)]] glory.
* Remember Conrad Verner? In the second game, he shows up as an "extreme" mercenary. You can try to talk some sense into him, or, if you're a Renegade....
-->'''Shepard''': Conrad, let me make this perfectly clear. [[spoiler:''(shoots Conrad in the foot)'' This is ''not'' acceptable.]]
** He gets his own actual moment of awesome if Paragon!Shep talks him down from his little crusade. He starts a charity to help the victims and orphans of Sovereign and the geth attacks called..."Shepards". Well done man.
* Everyone who took a certain Renegade interrupt action in the Urdnot camp said these exact words: "Did...Did I just ''headbutt'' a ''krogan?'' Not to mention, the shocked look on said krogan's face eloquently says "Did... Did a ''Human'' just ''headbutt'' me?"
** A scene just a few minutes prior shows this to be a krogan dominance gesture, so if one is observant, they will immediately understand what the Renegade interrupt prompt is, and it is ''so right'' in context.
--> '''Shaman''': Hahaha! I like this human, s/he ''understands!''
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRq95S_Nv80 "Speak when spoken to, Uvenk. I'll drag your clan to glory whether it likes it or not."]]
** You discover that Wrex had one around the same time you perform the feat yourself: [[spoiler:He's the last krogan to kill a Thresher Maw on foot until you and Grunt come along.]] Keep in mind, that was '''one thousand years ago''.
** More awesome from a meta perspective, Uvenk is voiced by Michael Dorn, AKA Worf from Star Trek. Wrex is basically telling Worf to "Quit it with the stupid traditions, they aren't working, now get out of my way, I'm saving our race." Awesome.
* Finding out from an asari woman on Illium that, if you made the decision to save [[spoiler:the Rachni Queen]] in the first game, that she is repopulating her species, that you are revered as a legend by her race, and that when the time comes, ''she will bring her the entire [[spoiler:rachni]] race to help you stop the Reapers''. Oh, hell yes.
* Each class gets some sort of awesome combat power (InvisibilityCloak, BulletTime, etc), but the Vanguard's [[FlashStep Biotic Charge]] has to take the gold medal, simply for the RefugeInAudacity moments it can provoke. Biotic Charge a [[TheBerserker Krogan]]. Charge a Geth Prime. Charge [[spoiler: [[FearfulSymmetry Tela Vasir]].]] Charge [[BossInMooksClothing Harbinger]]. Charge a YMIR mech. Charge [[LargeAndInCharge The Shadow Broker]]. Charge ''the Colossus on Haestrom''. You can't knock the last one off its feet, but using that power to kill it will top just about any moment in the entire game for sheer amounts of awesome. Vanguard Shepard laughs at the concept of cover. Even better, most of the enemies will pause for a moment after your charge even if you didn't knock them flying, as if they're still wondering if you were ''insane enough to do what you just did.'' There's a reason why the Vanguard's FanNickname is '''Manguard'''.
* Far too much to say about [[spoiler:Tali's trial on the flotilla. You could get her off the hook by a Paragon action (if you talked to the Admirals and found out their ''real'' motivations for dragging her in on a treason charge), or you could "Rally the crowd," prompting both Kal'Reeger ''and'' the still-traumatized Veetor'Nara (if you saved them both after meeting them) to come up and brag to the Admiralty Board about how much Tali has done for the entire fleet.]]
** The Renegade solution to [[spoiler:Tali's trial]] manages to be just as awesome, [[spoiler:wherein Shepard probably shows more honest anger than s/he ever has up until that point in the series. Shepard gets '''pissed''', tells the Admiralty Board the entire trial is nothing more than "political bullshit" (yes, those are his/her exact words) to their face, tears them down for dragging a member of his/her crew into something like this for their own agenda, angrily exposes their real motives behind the trial, gets the whole crowd on his side, renders the whole board speechless and shames them into finding Tali not guilty. Made even more awesome by the capper to Shepard's whole rant against the Admirals:]]
---> '''Shepard''': [[spoiler:Do whatever you want with your toy ships. But leave my crew out of your political bullshit! We have no new evidence. You can accept Tali's word or you exile the woman who saved the galaxy from the geth.]]
---> '''Shepard''': [[spoiler:With all due respect Admiral, I didn't do it for one of "your people"; I did it for one of '''mine'''.]]
** And Tali's reaction afterward.
---> '''Tali''': It's fun watching you shout.
* The final boss of Mass Effect 2 deserves a mention. Three words: [[spoiler:Human-shaped Reaper Fetus.]]
* During Mordin's mission, while on the krogan homeworld, a krogan gangster with delusions of grandeur starts ranting and raving about how his clan will destroy the forces of the galaxy when they get enough numbers. A Renegade quick time shows up and you give him a ''very'' satisfying version of ShutUpHannibal using a fortuitously-placed gas main and two pistol shots.
-->'''Shepard''': ''You talk too much''. ''[[[ExactlyWhatIAimedAt gunshot]]]''
* When you get to the Citadel, if you nominated Anderson for Councilor, he puts [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Udina]] in his place.
-->'''Councilor Anderson''' (in the tone of a parent scolding a child): I don't answer to you anymore, Udina. Why don't you [[GoToYourRoom go to your office]] and think about that?
** Even if Udina isn't councilor, he still utters an awesome line: "Do the words ''political shitstorm'' mean anything to you?!"
* So Shepard, how does it feel to [[spoiler:piss off an entire armada of Reapers to the point where all of them know your name?]] The answer, of course, is that it feels ''awesome.''
* If Shepard opts to play [[GoodCopBadCop "bad cop"]] during Thane's loyalty quest, s/he'll try to intimidate the thug they're interrogating by threatening to [[DepopulationBomb cut off his balls and sell them to a krogan]].
** You can actually choose to go full Paragon until that interrupt. It's almost better because the 'bad cop' has done literally nothing against him the entire time until one little misplaced taunt sends him [[BerserkButton flying off the handle]]. To put this in perspective, if you only take that renegade interrupt, he is so terrified that he spills everything after one threat.
** Alternately, if you have enough Renegade points, you can just cut to the chase and point out that you're a Spectre. [[OhCrap It takes about four seconds after that for him to cough up the info you're after.]]
--->'''Thane:''' That may go down in history as the shortest interrogation ever.
** Even with just going full Charm option in the interrogation scene (again with enough Paragon points): the thug's defense attorney comes up after being held back by Bailey, and threatens both Shepard and Thane with illegal detention. Once Shep reveals his Spectre status, the attorney backs off and basically says "you're on your own on this one" to the thug.
* At the end of the game, if you decide to [[spoiler:blow up the Collector base]], Shepard will say a completely character-defining line for Paragons:
-->'''Shepard''': I won't let fear compromise who I am.
** If Miranda is with you, this is where you [[spoiler:finally get to give Cerberus the big middle finger: ''she'' will tell him that she's officially ''resigned'', in a tone of voice essentially telling him to screw off.]]
---> [[spoiler:'''Illusive Man''': Miranda, do not let Shepard destroy the base!]]
---> [[spoiler:'''Miranda''': Or what? You'll replace me next?]]
---> [[spoiler:'''Illusive Man''': I gave you an order, Miranda!]]
---> [[spoiler:'''Miranda''': I noticed. Consider this my resignation.]]
** This moment is made even better if you've been playing the whole game as a Renegade, due to how it makes Shepard look like s/he was playing the Illusive Man all along, coming off as a true MagnificentBastard when s/he finally gets the upper hand and uses that moment to seize control of Cerberus.
* Joker's return and the reveal of [[spoiler:the ''Normandy'' [=SR2=]]].
---> '''Shepard:''' You really trust the Illusive Man?
---> '''Joker:''' I don't trust anyone who makes more than I do. But they aren't all bad. Saved your life. Let me fly--and there's '''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy1E4eX484o this]]'''. They only told me last night.
* During Miranda's loyalty mission, a group of mercs will attempt to get her and Shepard to back off. As the merc talks, Shepard notices a crane moving an explosive cargo container. There's a Renegade interrupt. If taken, Shepard will reach forward and break the one merc's neck with his/her bare hands. Miranda will then shoot another at point-blank range as Shepard pulls out his/her handcannon and blasts the container to kill two more mercs. The only surviving mercenary is a shocked Salarian with a priceless "''holy shit!''" look on his face.
* The Paragon ending to Zaeed's loyalty mission. After saving a factory full of slaves and costing Zaeed his revenge against his arch-nemesis of twenty years as a result, Shepard puts a gun to Zaeed's head, tells him he's damn well going to work as part of a team, pulls the man out from under the girder that's fallen across his legs--thus proving his/her point that no one can go it alone all the time--and through sheer force of will and badassery manages to gain Zaeed's admiration and loyalty ''anyway''.
* Both Paragon ''and'' Renegade solutions to Legion and Tali's argument over her Omni-tool. Renegade Shepard will squash both of them flat while backlit by the hall light. (It's even within Paragon Shepard's personality to take the Renegade option here.)
-->'''Shepard:''' What the ''hell'' were you thinking!? Are you trying to undermine ''this entire operation?!'' You can either fight by ''my'' side, or get ''crushed under my heel'', but you will ''not'' stand in my way!
** Paragon Shepard will actually get Tali to say a few friendly words to Legion; probably the only ones ever uttered between the two species in 300 years.
** Bonus points to Paragon Shepard for how quickly and succinctly s/he defuses both Tali and Legion's arguments: first telling Tali that [[NotSoDifferent Legion isn't doing anything that s/he wouldn't do if]] [[spoiler: Tali's father was experimenting on humans instead of geth]], and then using Tali's response as a retort to Legion, who if they got their way [[NiceJobBreakingItHero might have accidentally started the same war they wanted to avoid.]]
* If you bring a nonhuman party member into the plague zone on Omega, they get sick. When you reach Mordin's clinic, he looks up, notes they're sick, and casually makes the infection go away with a press of a button. Beforehand, you knew Mordin was a hell of a doctor, but the fact that he developed a cure ''specifically for each species'' that works ''that'' fast immediately proves his awesome scientist cred.
* An option most people probably missed shows up during Samara's loyalty mission. [[spoiler:When hunting for Morinth in Afterlife's VIP lounge, Shepard comes across two would-be turian muggers. With a bit of Intimidation, Shepard provokes both of them into attacking (as actually throwing the first blow would get the Commander thrown out too early to lure the target) and promptly crushes each of them with two blows in a total of five seconds.]]
** Speaking of Samara's loyalty mission, when you manage to [[spoiler:convince Morinth to take the bait and start seducing you, she will gaze into your eyes and tell you to tell her that she owns you, and can do whatever she wants with you--clearly about to do with you what she did with her previous victims. If his/her scores are high enough, both Paragon ''and'' Renegade Shepard can essentially tell her, "Nope. Sucks to be you." The dawning moment of "OhCrap..." on her face as Samara walks in the door and blasts her is ''priceless'', and the idea that Shepard has so much HeroicWillpower that s/he is able to resist the brainwashing of an ''Ardat-Yakshi'' is yet another checkmark for his/her awesomeness.]]
** Also, there's one precious gem in the VIP lounge: You see how a tipsy and huge male Turian is harassing one of the exotic dancers and if you decide to call the Turian out for it, he [[MuggingTheMonster tries to pick a fight with Shepard]]. Cue Shepard [[CurbStompBattle handing the Turian his ass on a silver platter in seconds]].
** Another awesome renegade option to get Morinth's attention is to insult the Krogan at the bar. As they exchange a few harsh words, they trade their best intimidating gaze--Renegade Shepard's looks downright ''predatory''.
** The mission itself. Samara gives Shepard bucketloads of motivation to help hunt down and kill a space vampire. Finding her latest victim however leaves both of them fighting to not just storm where she is.
* If you saw that scene, you know:
--> '''Thane''': Amonkira, Lord of Hunters, grant that my hands be steady, my aim be true, and my feet swift. And should the worst come to pass, [[StealthHiBye grant me forgiveness.]]
* Paragon Shepard at the end of the game. [[spoiler:With the Illusive Man nearly frothing at the mouth about the destruction of the Collector base and accusing Shepard of biting the hand that fed him/her, Shepard will, in a very calm voice, "pleasantly" inform him that s/he's doing things his/her way now, and the Illusive Man, one of the most powerful humans in the galaxy, had better suck it up and fall in line. Then s/he'll tell Joker to cut the connection in a manner reminiscent of the Council from the first game, or alternatively...]]
-->'''[[spoiler:The Illusive Man]]''': [[spoiler:I made you, Shepard! I brought you back from the dead!]]
-->'''Shepard''': [[spoiler:And I'm going to do what you brought me back to do. I'll fight and win this war without compromising the soul of our species.]]
** It's pretty awesome to hear Shepard rub his/her moral superiority in his face, showing that s/he knows ''damn'' well who the good guy is.
*** A Renegade response to The Illusive Man angry that Shepard destroyed the Collector Base is to tell him who's in charge: "Get on board, or ''get out of my way''."
* During Thane's loyalty mission, you are tasked with tracking down [[spoiler:his son and stopping him from killing a corrupt politician (you can get him arrested later) and following in his father's footsteps. Once you finish tracking him down, you end up in a standoff with him holding the gun to his target's head. Rather than the typical tense negotiations, a Paragon interrupt has the Commander shoot a lamp to distract Kolyat, then punch some sense into the kid.]] Resolving the entire situation in four seconds without any complications ''and'' showing that good guys don't ''have'' to deal with nonsense.
** The Renegade interrupt is no worse. [[spoiler:You show Kolyat he's in no position to negotiate by shooting the scumbag of a hostage yourself.]]
--> '''Kolyat''': All of you, back off! I'll kill him!
--> '''Shepard''': No. You won’t.
-->'''*BANG*'''
--> '''Kolyat''': ...oh my gods!
--> '''Shepard''': Hostages only work when your enemy cares if they live.
--> '''Thane''': Interesting solution.
* Firing the Cain. No matter when you use it, no matter who you use it on, and no matter for what reason, every single time you fire the Cain is epic.
** Special mention to using it on the [[spoiler: Geth Colossus. Remember that hard slog of a fight to kill the thing? You can end it ''five seconds'' after it reveals itself by blowing up the Colossus with the Cain, along with every geth in the vicinity.]]
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0TwmnRzNvg Using it on the Oculus is also very satisfying.]] It also adds a bit of unintentional humor to your squadmates' follow-up remarks.
-->'''Garrus''': I think it's going to stay dead this time.
** There's one reason to bring Grunt with you on the mission, which is both a BadassBoast and a FunnyMoment combined:
--->'''Grunt:''' ''(almost giggling with glee)'' This is why I follow you, Shepard! '''''BIG THINGS!'''''
* During the mission to recruit Samara, Shepard runs across a volus swindler who lets slip he has a copy of the passcard into a mercenary base. Shepard reacts by cracking his/her knuckles, which is enough to get the swindler to hand it over.
* The over-arching [=CMOA=] for the Paragon Shepard over the course of two games: if you played as a Paragon in ''Mass Effect'' and ''Mass Effect 2'', it means you have the [[spoiler:rachni, geth, krogans, and quarians]] all backing you up for ''Mass Effect 3'' against the [[spoiler:Reaper invasion]], which, ironically, allows you to tell the Council to screw off even more than a Renegade Shepard could.
** Not to mention the [[spoiler:Shadow Broker]]. Plus, a fully Paragon Shepard could probably convince the Blue Suns, Eclipse, and the Blood Pack to do some Pro Bono work and convince Aria to drag Omega into the war. The Reapers are going down. HilariousInHindsight because that's a distinct possibility regardless of Shepard's alignment in VideoGame/MassEffect3, depending on the outcome of certain missions.
* Learning from Samara that she faced off against Nihlus. Nihlus had killed some civilians for some Spectre-related mission, Samara's Justicar code demanded that she kill him. Nihlus not only managed to avoid her initial assault, but in the end actually managed to escape her by pulling a FriendOrIdolDecision on her by making her choose between saving an innocent or catching him, basically using her own rules against her. Keep in mind Nihlus was probably only a Spectre at that time for maybe a little longer than Shepard was, and Samara is a centuries-old warrior with massive biotic powers as well as extensive training. The galaxy lost a ''damn'' good Spectre on Eden Prime.
* An understated one on Tuchanka, after completing Grunt's loyalty mission [[spoiler:and killing the Thresher Maw on foot]] Grunt is inducted into Clan Urdnot. The shaman starts listing off the things Grunt can do now that he's an adult, the last of which is 'you may now serve under a battlemaster'. Grunt's reply: "Shepard is my battlemaster, (s)he has no match." The Shaman's response? A semi-grudging "Indeed." Think about it.
** If [[spoiler:Wrex]] is still alive, this is more meaningful, given Shepard's role in the rise of Clan Urdnot. Given that [[spoiler:Wrex is a krogan battlemaster himself, who was the last to destroy a Maw and served under Shepard]]...
* Renegade Shepard staying calm and completely dominating Grunt after opening his tank, even while he has him/her pinned to the wall.
-->'''Shepard''': My enemies threaten galaxies. Everyone on my ship has earned their place.
** This is even more awesome when you realize that Grunt is actually shocked that a human would speak that way to him. This display, along with the gun that Shepard had on him the entire time without his knowledge, gains Grunt's UndyingLoyalty and respect to Shepard almost instantly.
--->'''Grunt''': Nothing in the tank imprints indicated that humans could be so forceful. You talk as though you've earned command.
** Arguably the Paragon route is just as badass in that scene. Shepard calmly and pleasantly convinces Grunt to accept him/her as his leader while the latter has him/her pinned to the wall. Than the camera pans out and shows that while this was happening, Shepard armed him/herself and had a gun pointing straight at Grunt's stomach the whole time. And Grunt didn't even notice until Shepard mentioned it!
--->'''Shepard:''' I'm glad you saw it my way.
--->''(Grunt looks down, then chuckles.)''
--->'''Grunt:''' Huh... Offer one hand, arm the other. ''[[GoodIsNotDumb Wise]]'', Shepard.
* Tali gets two crowning moments if she's in the party for the "Crime In Progress" assignment. After the volus accusing another quarian of pickpocketing him refers to them as "[[FantasticRacism clanless]]" one too many times, she'll say;
-->'''Tali''': I am clan Zorah, crew of the starship ''Neema'' -- and ''you'' are an idiot.
** Then, if Shepard says he's not worth it;
---> '''Tali''': My brain agrees with you. My gut says to jack his suit's olfactory filters so that everything smells like refuse!
** If Garrus is the third party member, he'll speak for us all;
--->'''Garrus''': [[BewareTheNiceOnes Remind me never to get on your bad side]].
** Really, bring Tali along and the whole thing becomes one long, glorious TakeThat against some people's issues with immigrants, right down to the volus dragging out the tired old [[ArtisticLicenseEconomics "And to think my taxes pay to support you!"]] argument.
** Shepard isn't exactly a slouch in this scene either. The Paragon interrupt was absolutely perfect.
--->'''Shepard:''' ''[shoving the volus]'' You falsely accused this girl of stealing from you -- and all you have to say now is that she ''could'' have stolen it?
--->'''Volus:''' Now just a minute!
--->'''Shepard:''' ''[grabbing the cop]'' And you! She gets harassed and insulted by this guy, and you throw in a threat to run her in for vagrancy?
--->'''Cop:''' How about I run you in for obstruction of justice?
--->'''Shepard:''' You think you're gonna run in a ''Spectre?'' I think both of you should get out of here.
--->'''Cop:''' Son of a...
*** Able to be seen in all its glory [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awLZQMnH5nY&feature=player_detailpage#t=179s starting at 3:00]] and resuming to the end of it at 8:00. If you prefer Femshep, see [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4-NWOL6H6Y here.]]
*** It's even better if you aren't expecting it. If you always picked the top-right dialog choice in the first game, Shepard almost seemed impossible to anger. The shock of seeing a Paragon Shepard just lay into those two is surprising and satisfying.
* Shepard's speeches (s)he is able to give during the suicide mission are suitably epic, including some powerful music and dramatic finger pointing. Additionally the speech can focus on giving the Collectors some serious payback or focusing on saving lives, depending on if the player is going for Renegade or Paragon.
** There are two or three segments to each speech, and you can independently choose Paragon or Renegade segments of each speech. Starting with Paragon (i.e. Why We're Here) and ending with Renegade (i.e. 'Now let's go ''kick some ass''!') is immensely satisfying.
*** This gets great subtext if playing as a Paragon Colonist Shepard with the War Hero backstory. You lost your entire family when your colony was invaded, it was probably what drove them to single-handedly save Elysium from a similar attack during the Skyllian Blitz. Also in the first game, this would have been their determination to rescue everyone on Zhu's Hope. Honestly, what were the Reapers even ''[[BullyingADragon thinking]]'' by attacking [[BerserkButton Human colonies?]]
* If you're a Renegade who saved the Council in the first game, during their little chat with you in Anderson's office (because, come on, [[EvenEvilHasStandards who picked Udina for Councilor]]?) they dismiss everything you stirred up in the first game and then condescendingly offer to reinstate you as a Spectre, clearly meant to placate Shepard and remove her as an annoyance by sending her back into the Terminus Systems. You can say that you'd be honored, or tell them to go screw themselves.
--> '''Shepard''': The Council offered to reinstate me as a Spectre. I told them where they could stick it.
** If you picked Anderson, he complains in the second game that he never wanted to be a politician. It would've been nice if we had more choices than "[[RetiredBadass tired old soldier]]" and "[[AssInAmbassador jackass]]."
* The right person leading the distraction team gets one during the suicide mission after the first segment. "Suppressing fire! Don't let anything through that door!"
* A loyal Jack or Samara will get one at the end of the barrier sequence. Blowing away every Collector and seeker in the room. Jack, in particular, looks back at the Collectors as if to say, "Yeah, you had no chance beating me."
* The [[spoiler: Collector ship raid]] is somewhat of a CMOA for EDI; before that point she's mostly there for exposition purposes, and then [[spoiler: she hijacks the Collector ship to save you, very quickly deduces important information on the Collectors and both works out and reveals the fact the raid was set-up by her creators. Considering that it was Harbinger who was behind the attack, EDI defeated him in cyberwarfare.]]
* If Jack survives the [[spoiler:suicide mission]], as you walk by her as she helps with repairs to the ''Normandy'', she gives you a respectful nod, and you realize she's gone from being an emotionally scarred, near-psychotic sociopath to someone who actually ''gives a damn'' about the rest of humanity.
* Kasumi gets one at the end of her loyalty mission. [[spoiler:She and Shepard are fighting Donovan Hock, who's using a gunship that regenerates shields too fast for the two of them to destroy it. Once Shepard clears a path through Hock's Eclipse {{Mooks}}, Kasumi jumps onto the gunship, disables its shields, smiles at Hock and flips off to resume the fight.]]
** In the same mission, Shepard [[ShutUpHannibal shutting Hock up]] by [[spoiler:[[FelonyMisdemeanor destroying one of his priceless sculptures]].]]
--> '''Hock:''' [[BigNo NOOOOO]][[SkewedPriorities OOOOOO!!]]
--> '''Shepard:''' Do I have your attention now?
** Hell, anytime Kasumi uses Shadow Strike is awesome. Watching this little Japanese girl punch a HumongousMecha in the back never gets old.
*** The best thing about Shadow Strike is she uses it as a finisher. Basically, if you've got Kasumi in your party and you're hurting from almost whittling away the most recent wave of attackers, "Going dark!" becomes one hell of a [[MostWonderfulSound great thing to hear.]]
* In the suicide mission, if you choose Jacob to lead a distraction team, Miranda will say something about how he'll finally be able to prove he's able to command. Yes, his first command job comes in a battle to save all sentient life in the galaxy. Even considering the fact he's in charge of the B-team that fights off-screen, that is ''awesome''.
** What makes it better is that Jacob is one of the right choices. He ''succeeds'' in his first command job in a battle to save all sentient life in the galaxy!
** Though, logically, it's not his first command at all. He says he was a Corsair in the Alliance, which were covert ops specialists who used counter-boarding to fight pirates. He was a perfect choice. Miranda must have just forgotten his background.
* At one point during the game before the suicide mission, if you ask Garrus his opinion on the success of the mission, his response really drives home the fact that you are literally ''too important to be allowed to [[spoiler:die.]]''
--> '''Garrus:''' The Collectors [[spoiler:killed you once,]] and all it did was piss you off. I can't imagine that they'll stop you this time.
* The end of Zaeed's loyalty mission. If [[spoiler:Vido gets away and you still ask Zaeed to join you]], you get this:
--> '''Zaeed''': And what's going to keep me from blowing you away in your sleep?
--> '''Shepard''': You know that's not gonna happen. You're a badass, Zaeed. But remember who you're talking to.
** Shepard knows and lampshades that s/he's the biggest badass of them all.

* Shepard is asked to hand over whatever weapons s/he has when visiting Purgatory prison.
--> I'll relinquish one bullet. [''others draw their weapons''] Where do you want it?
* Observing Wrex's political savvy on Tuchanka. If you compare his actions to Urdnot Wreav's, there's no question who the greater warlord is.
** After Mordin's mission, Shepard had decimated Clan Weyrloc; Wreav used that to just wipe out the rest of the clan. Wrex took in the women and children, and made them part of ''his'' tribe.
** He turned down a possible cure for the genophage because the experiments on living krogan were too cruel. Keep in mind, a genophage cure would be the "I win" button for any krogan clan. Wrex turned it down on ''ethical'' standards.
** He invited a small, mildly weak (by Krogan standards), clan into his inner circle. Why? Because the clan has a direct lineage to a legendary krogan warrior and he can use the name to bolster his own ranks.
** Clan Urdnot has a rather talent scientist who was very good at making things that went boom. What's Wrex having him work on now? Crops, irrigation, farming, and medicine.
** Wreav just gives grudging permission for Grunt to take the rite and join Urdnot just to gain a new warrior. Wrex lets Grunt decide for himself if he wishes to join Urdnot, praises him when he says yes, and welcomes him into the clan after the rite with near fatherly pride. (More so if Grunt and Shep killed the Thresher Maw. He's actually amused that someone upset his record as the only one to do it.)
--->'''Wrex''': Guess that's what it takes to replace me.
** Wrex and a female established an actual neutral ground. On Tuchanka. They created, with his own hands and in two years, the equivalent of a snowman in the Sahara...and kept it from melting.
*** Even more so, Wrex's power increased because no clans ''dare'' fuck with Urdnot thanks to the alliance with the females of ''all'' clans.
* One for Harbinger, at the beginning no less. When we see how savvy Harbinger is with the obliteration of the Normandy and Shepard's death at the beginning, it's hard not to be impressed. [[WeCanRebuildHim Sure, it didn't work out exactly the way Harbinger wanted it]], [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority but it shows why the Reapers have been the top dogs for millions of years]].
* Grunt's defiance of Gatatog Uvenk near the end of his loyalty mission.
** It's better if you skip the Paragon or Renegade options for that, and just take the neutral option. Shepard's line (and Grunt's response) is ''priceless''.
--->'''Shepard''': If I know Grunt, [[TalkToTheFist your answer's coming at muzzle velocity.]]
--->'''Grunt''': You ''do'' know Grunt. This varren is dead. ''[tackles Uvenk]''
* The entire Overlord DLC was a Crowning 5 missions of awesome. Easily the best DLC in franchise history (until ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' and ''Citadel'', see below).
** Special mention goes to the [[GoodIsNotSoft Paragon interrupt]] at the very end... [[spoiler:when ''[[PistolWhipping pistol-whipping]]'' Gavin Archer for what he did to David is considered "Paragon."]]
** The entire Paragon ending of Overlord is equal parts this and CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming, both due to the above, and because it’s one of the only instances in the series where Paragon Shepard is clearly ''enraged''.
--->'''Shepard''': You even ''think'' about coming after [[spoiler:your brother]], and this bullet will be waiting for you! THEN we'll see who's "too valuable!"
** Badass and GoodIsNotSoft indeed. Hell, the middle of the road option makes Para-Shep even angrier, as if s/he's going to execute Gavin Archer right there.
*** Not many would have seen the renegade ending where Shepard gives up David, but it is no less awesome.
---->"I'll let you have him, but..." '''*WHACK*''' "[[EvenEvilHasStandards You're a sick bastard. The only reason you're getting off this floor alive is because this project might prevent a war. You better make damn sure this nightmare was worth all the pain]]."
** At the end of the first mission, Shepard and his/her team destroy the satellite dish to prevent the VI from uploading itself off-world by destroying its supports from the ''inside''. This unbalances the entire dish and causes it to slowly start tipping over. To get out, Shepard and his/her squad ''run up the inside of the dish and leap from the edge onto a narrow walkway''. Did we mention all this is taking place on a cliffside, very high above the ground?
* Ahh, where to begin with ''Lair of the Shadow Broker''?
** Liara T'Soni, formerly a meek, quiet asari scientist, [[TookALevelInBadass taking about seven levels in badass.]] When you first meet her, she's threatening a recalcitrant client by channeling her mother, Matriarch Benezia. It only gets better from there on out, culminating in her ShutUpHannibal to the Shadow Broker himself, transitioning seamlessly into a BreakingSpeech of her very own.
--->'''Broker:''' It's pointless to challenge me, asari. I know your every secret, while you fumble in the dark.
--->'''Liara:''' Is that right? You're a [[spoiler:yahg, a pre-spaceflight species that was quarantined to their homeworld for massacring the Council's first contact teams.]] This base is older than your planet's discovery, so I'm guessing you killed the original Shadow Broker 60 years ago, then took his place. I'm guessing that you were taken from your homeworld by a trophy hunter who wanted a slave - ''[smirks]'' or a pet. How am I doing?
--->'''Broker:''' ''[{{Beat}}]'' ''[VillainousBreakdown]''
** It becomes even more awesome when, after the fight [[spoiler: Liara reveals she actually didn't know most of that, only knowing the basics of yahg history and psychology and using it against him.]]
** A high speed chase in the middle of Illium rush hour traffic.
** Hunting down [[spoiler:Vasir, a Spectre with the Biotic Charge ability!]]
*** The fight with [[spoiler:Vasir]] is ridiculously awesome if your Shep is also a Vanguard...and even if s/he isn't a Vanguard.
*** Shepard tackling and wrestling [[spoiler:Vasir]] [[FreefallFight out of a two story window]].
*** [[spoiler:Vasir]] gets her own moment of awesome. After Shepard tackles her out the window, she manages to biotic kick him/her into the ground, stunning him/her.
*** Not to mention how Shepard handles that hostage situation that comes up.
*** Especially the Paragon BadassBoast
---->"I sacrificed hundreds of human lives to save the ''Destiny Ascension''!"
---->"[[spoiler:I unleashed the rachni on the galaxy!]]"
---->"So for your sake, hope your escape plan doesn't hinge on me ''hesitating to shoot a damn hostage!''"
*** The Intimidate option is just as cool: Shepard annoys said Spectre with ''faux'' FantasticRacism [[spoiler:while signaling to Liara to [[CombatPragmatist telekinetically bean her with a table]]. Tela never saw it coming.]]
*** The regular renegade option (wound the hostage) is also badass.
---->"[[spoiler:Smart move, hiding behind a hostage. A Spectre would do whatever it takes to get the job done. But you're forgetting something... I'm a Spectre too." BANG!]]
** Let's give [[ImplacableWoman Tela Vasir]] credit. She provides an awesome NPC display as to how dangerous and badass a Spectre, and a Vanguard, can be. The table beaning her in the face was not the only thing that happened. She also wrestled Shepard down 4+ stories (a wrestle that she actually ''won''), got into a nasty car wreck and lost a large amount of blood before the table hit her. And after all this, [[ThatOneBoss she STILL provides one of the toughest and most frantic fights in the entire series.]]
** Walking across the hull of a spaceship in the middle of a planetary wide lightning storm.
** [[spoiler: Shepard squared off with the Shadow Broker in single hand-to-hand combat not once, not twice, but ''thrice''. The Shadow Broker is a yahg who happens to be at least two times bigger than Shepard in every way, has a maw with three rows of gnashing jagged teeth, and would give the krogan a run for their money in terms of strength, ferocity, and brutality.]]
** [[spoiler: Liara becoming the new Shadow Broker. Thus giving Shepard ''another'' force in his/her corner.]]
** One of the videos you can watch on the Shadow Broker's ship shows Kalisah al-Jilani getting an uppercut from a krogan. Another video shows her kicked by a volus. Other videos show the asari bartender on Illium headbutting a krogan, and attacking a volus with biotics. Anderson shoots a krogan and punches Udina. Gavorn on Omega kills a couple of vorcha with a grenade.
** Admiral Hackett gets one in his dossier. Some Alliance officer sent him a proposal to take Shepard into custody and interrogate him/her about Cerberus. The proposal is a page long. Hackett's response? Two words: "[[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Request denied]]."
*** He also gets one of these off camera [[spoiler:as Liara reveals that he's the one who gave her Shepard's dogtags to return to the Commander, after the mission's over.]]
----> [[spoiler: '''Liara''': "Do you remember Admiral Hackett? He gave them to me, so I could return them to you. He sends his best, and hopes you're okay."]]
** [[spoiler: Morinth]] gets one if you bring her along. The Shadow Broker will comment that he finds it odd that Liara brought "the Justicar" along, given her "[[spoiler:changed agenda]]". This implies that even ''he'' doesn't know that [[spoiler:Morinth killed Samara and took her place]]. That's right - [[spoiler: Morinth]] is so convincing she even fooled the Shadow Broker.
** You also learn how Mordin [[ImprovisedWeapon killed with farming equipment]]: He stabbed a krogan through the eye with a pitchfork.
** Garrus' dossier lists an assortment of [[HoistByHisOwnPetard awesomely ironic]] deaths for various criminals on Omega, i.e. sabotaging a saboteur’s environment suit so he suffocated, killing a weapons smuggler with a smuggled weapon, etc. but the very best? Garrus confronting a quarian serial killer whose weapon of choice was viruses...and killing him ''by coughing at him.''
** The batarian drug dealer who died of red sand overdose due to direct contact with all four eyes, implying that Garrus pressed his face into the stuff.
** The only one that didn't get this treatment was Kron Harga... who got:
--->Gunshot wounds (all extremities and primary organs)\\
Rifle butt fracture to face\\
Third-degree burns to most of body (explosive crate)
*** So, either Garrus [[NoKillLikeOverkill really had it in for this guy]], or the dude was a Krogan (as the term "primary organ" suggests), [[DeathByAThousandCuts so all that was absolutely necessary]].
* [[TheWoobie Veetor.]] It's stated in game that he has trouble talking to people in individual conversations, much less a crowd, and that his sanity has more than a few cracks in it from [[HeroicBSOD what he experienced]]. But when Tali's ass is on the line, if you make the right choice, what does he do? Charges right through the crowd, confronting the ''Admiralty Board themselves'', and delivers a ShutUpHannibal and CharacterWitness testimony that helps prevent her exile. Considering all he's been through, that's awesome in its own right.
** Not only that, but it's worth noting that Veetor said something ''before'' Kal'Reegar. Badass SpaceMarine being the first voice to agree with Shepard and stand up to the [[NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering Admirality Board]] and risking exile? That's expected. The scared kid who was nervous in crowds even before he went through a traumatic experience speaking up in front of the leaders of his people and risking exile? That takes a quad.
* The Shadow Broker himself gets one. He managed to kill the original Shadow Broker and manage his network for ''years''.
** He also has a dossier on the Illusive Man, of all people. You know, the guy who's supposed to be so untrackable that he's actually called the ''Illusive'' Man. The Shadow Broker monitors him so closely that he even knows what suit he's wearing and what food he eats.
* The golden ending of Mass Effect 2. Basically Shepard does what is said to be a total suicide mission and completes it without losing ''any'' of his/her people. S/he effectively wiped out an entire slave race in an utter CurbStompBattle and [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu gave a giant middle finger to the most powerful beings in the galaxy. Again.]]
* Paragon Shepard's Renegade response to The Illusive Man's angry, "You're making a habit of costing me more than time and money" after destroying the Collector Base.
-->'''Shepard:''' [[DeadpanSnarker I'm sorry, I'm having trouble hearing you. I'm getting a lot of bullshit on this line.]]
** Better yet, that ending's final Renegade remark:
-->'''TIM''': I should have known you'd choke at the harsh decisions, too idealistic from the start!
-->'''Shepard''': I know what you are, and the price of working with you! Harbinger is coming, humanity needs a leader who's looking out for them! You can either fall in line or step aside, but '''don't''' get in my way!
** Even the initial Paragon response is subtly awesome;
--->'''Shepard''': [[TakeThat You get the help you deserve]].
* There's one in the background information of a planet you go near while heading towards the derelict Reaper. The people that fired that mass accelerator weapon managed to kill a ''Reaper''. Sure, they were probably wiped out either when the weapon fired or after the Reapers figured out what had happened, but still. [[DyingMomentOfAwesome Hell of a way to go]].
* Anytime Shepard beats down a krogan with his/her bare hands. Double points if you do it on Insanity.
* When Joker makes his way to the A.I. Core to flush the airlocks and clear the Normandy of the Collectors. If you talk to Zaeed afterwards, he not only says that he's impressed with Joker for managing to do that, but that if he had Joker's "glass bones" and had to do that, he'd literally be in pieces right now.
* Jacob's loyalty mission has a particularly awesome and powerful moment if you choose to go with the Renegade approach to bringing [[spoiler: Ronald Taylor]] to justice. After spending several minutes chewing him out for his crimes, Jacob hands him a pistol, at half-charge. At his incredulous response, Jacob simply says "[[spoiler:My father owned his mistakes.]]" Nothing else needs to be said.
** Given what Ronald Taylor did (as pointed out, straight out of a Richard Laymon novel), the neutral option, [[DoWithHimAsYouWill leaving him to be torn apart by the people he'd had poisoned and hunted down]], works a treat as well. As do the replies from the third squadmate at his protests.
-->'''Ronald:''' You can't do this, you don't know what they'll do to me.
-->'''[[AxCrazy Jack]] or [[WesternTerrorists Miranda]]''': We can guess.
-->'''[[ClassyCatBurglar Kasumi]]''': No, I think we can guess exactly what they'll do to you.
-->'''[[DeadlyDoctor Mordin]]''': Untrue. Just do not care.
-->'''[[EvenEvilHasStandards Zaeed]]''': We just don't give a shit.
-->'''[[MechaMook Legion]]''': Anger increases creativity of organics. It will be interesting to observe their efforts.
* "Arrival." Good job, [[spoiler: Harbinger]], what with [[spoiler: finally capturing Shepard]].
** What's that? You've [[spoiler: heavily sedated Shepard]]? Good idea, except [[spoiler: Shepard doesn't stay sedated for long, thanks to those nasty Cerberus cybernetics]]. Best summed up with the doctor's statement:
-->"Must be a glitch, says the sedatives are wearing off...[[OhCrap oh, shit,]] it's ''not a glitch!''"
** Well, at least you've got several heavily armed and armored guards in the room to deal with - oh, wait, [[spoiler: Shepard just punched your guards out with his/her bare hands!]]
** Thankfully, you've got a small army of [[{{Mooks}} soldiers]] ready to...[[OneManArmy defend]]...[[CurbstompBattle the Project]]....Nevermind.
--> '''Enemy Soldier on Intercom''': [[OhCrap Shepard's tearing us apart.]]
** Finally, Shepard's awesome conversation with [[spoiler:Harbinger]] where s/he admits that the galaxy probably can't beat them, but that they will fight and make them work to wipe them out.
*** Another nice part of that conversation is that [[spoiler: Harbinger]], who has refused to acknowledge to Shepard that s/he's made any kind of difference, says this.
--> '''[[spoiler:Harbinger]]''': [[AC:[[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu Shepard,]] you have become an annoyance.]]
** Taking out all five waves in the battle by Object Rho. This nets an achievement/trophy, and is a testament to how badass Shepard is if the player pulls it off. The Indoctrinated Project members realize that they aren't capable of taking Shepard down and call in a Heavy Mech...which Shepard, despite bad cover and dwindling ammo supplies, promptly destroys. The only reason Shepard loses is that Object Rho knocks him/her out. It's especially awesome on Insanity. They can hit you with whatever they want. ''It won't stop Shepard''.
* The entirety of Jack's escape from Purgatory. You see this little, tattooed girl come out of the cryo pod, then she rips off her metal restraints, kills three HumongousMecha robots by ripping them to shreds, and smashes through the nearest wall. Immediately after following her is a notification that three cell blocks have lost life support. Can we say PersonOfMassDestruction?
** It gets better in the ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'': one of the videos in the video archive shows her absolutely '''leveling''' two Blue Suns mercs in her way, by ensnaring them in a biotic grip, ''leaping'' skyward, and pasting the two hapless mercs on the ceiling, while she lands and keeps running.
* If you didn't hit it off with any of the love interests by the time you hit the Omega 4 Relay, Miranda confirms with you if you're ready or not to head to the Collectors. Regardless of your choice of dialogue, she assures you she believes you're up to the task and gives you a salute for the very first time, signifying her level of trust and respect for you.
* During Miranda's loyalty mission, if you interrupt and spare Niket, he'll immediately get killed by Captain Enyala, then Miranda picks her up with biotics and tosses her.
--> '''Miranda''': [[PreAssKickingOneLiner You'll die for that,]] [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch!]]
* One mission in the Hades Nexus system has you defending the sole survivor of a crashed Quarian ship against wave after wave of varren. At the end, when a rescue shuttle has landed at your location and the Quarian is limping toward it, two larger and meaner varren arrive. The Quarian gets on the shuttle, Shepard shrugs and gets on too. One of the varren charges and Shepard kicks it in the face as the shuttle takes off. To quote any Krogan at all, it wasn't worth killing.
* In the final moments of the final cutscene, you see Shepard looking out a window into space. Then, far beyond the Galaxy's edge, you see Harbinger, and then the rest of the Reapers come into view. Not dozens, not even hundreds. ''Thousands''. It's at this point that you realize that despite all of the awesome that came before, when the Reapers finally arrive, they'll be a lot harder to take down than the Collectors.
* Most games of this style had a SilentProtagonist, or mostly silent for dialogue options. [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 The first game]] had speech for Shepard during cut scenes and the second expanded this to full on conversations, greatly expanding the character and making it much more natural as a whole. Though they had to nearly gut every foundation of roleplaying to do so so YMMV.
* Thane's wife-to-be gets one in his backstory; when he was about to assassinate a Salarian, she spotted him and deliberately placed herself in his scope of fire. That took guts.

[[folder: Mass Effect 3]]
* The entire turian species gets one if you read the Codex page for the Battle of Palaven. With only fifteen minutes warning, the turian admiral in charge came up with a plan to defend his homeworld. They used the Reapers' size against them by using a precision FTL jump to land behind the Reaper fleet. The codex says that they managed to destroy several of the Reaper capital ships, the kind of dreadnoughts that took the combined Alliance 5th fleet and Citadel Defense Fleet to bring down even after Sovereign had lost much of his power when you killed robot-Saren.
** Gets even bigger when you read the section about the ground war. The Reapers arrive at Palaven in full force, destroy cities with their capital ships and land hordes of husks. All the codex has to say is that "Much of the turian fleet is still operable, and the citizenry is heavily armed. The turians refuse to be intimidated."
** The battle on Palaven itself. The Reapers swept through the Mass Relay with overwhelming force and begin bombarding the Turian homeworld and its moon. Numerous Dreadnought-sized Reapers enter the atmosphere of both. At least a day after the start, the Normandy arrives. Not only is the Turian resistance still continuing, they've still got air support, there's still a chain of command, it takes them less than five minutes to sort through their casualties and determine the highest survivor in the line of succession for Primarch, and the battle in space appears to be stalemated.
** "The Miracle of Palaven" is the highlight of the entire turian campaign against the Reapers. First the Turians have a dreadnaught fake a drive core malfunction in order to present a juicy target of opportunity to the reapers who break their siege line of Palaven to go destroy it. Turian and Krogan insurgents use the breach in order to smuggle WMD's onto Palaven's surface and into reaper capital ships and processing centers. In a simultaneous strike the insurgents detonate the bombs (sacrificing themselves to avoid the possibility of them being turned by indoctrination) and the rest of the military forces on the planet counter-attack reaper forces on multiple fronts. Several Reaper capital ships are completely annihilated, the conversion rates on Palaven drop significantly, and large swaths of territory fall back into turian control.
*** And they hold out for much of the rest of the game, even if just barely. All the way up until the Fall of Thessia, where the enormous casualties that the Reapers inflict force them into a total retreat.
** How about the fact that the turians are the only species that have actually repelled Reaper offensives with any consistency? At Digeris, a full colony, they defeated the initial assault and forced the Reapers to resort to raids. At Pheiros, a fuel-producing asteroid, they defeated a "substantial force" of Reapers, securing their fleet's fuel supply. The other species have largely been reduced to hit-and-run tactics and guerrilla warfare after being rather sharply defeated in space.
* Every time one of your Paragon decisions from the earlier games pays off.
** Either seeing it in person, or reading about it like [[spoiler: hearing that Shiala is leading the Zhu's Hope semi-hive mind colonists in a successful pushback, learning that Kal'Reegar sacrificed himself and his squad to hold a turian communications outpost, hearing that the guy you had Jack spare on Pragia brought down dozens of husks to save fleeing transports full of children, the list goes on and all of it is fist pumpingly awesome.]]
** Hell, anytime a ''Renegade'' decision pays off, from a previous game or from this one. Bioware understands that GoodIsNotNice. [[spoiler: Didn't go full Paragon when you encountered Kelly Chambers again in [=ME3=]? Good for you, you saved her life. Killed Rana Thanoptis? Congrats, now she won't gun down asari officials on Reaper orders. Tell Javik not to take the shard? He'll be writing a book with Liara, or travelling the galaxy, or living like a king with the Hanar, instead of [[DrivenToSuicide killing himself.]]]]
*** A subtle one, but when talking to your squadmates between missions, the Paragon responses are you opening up how bleak and desperate the situation is and how little hope and chance there is of victory. The Renegade ones show you hiding these emotions, because someone has to be strong, dammit.
*** Then when you decide to open up, if at all [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming your crew doesn't say anything bad about lying to them.]] TrueCompanions at its finest...
* Thane vs Kai Leng. Kai Leng and Shepard's squad are circling each other with the Salarian councilor trapped in the middle... and then Thane appears out of nowhere with his gun pointed at Leng's head. He proceeds to hold his own against Cerberus's cyborg poster boy despite being a DeadManWalking (three months to live ''nine months ago''), at one point [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom launching him across the room with a biotic pimpslap]].
** Making this even more impressive is that, with the exception of Thane's modest biotic abilities, everything he pulls off is through skill, experience, and physical fitness, against an opponent who is both incredibly skilled and augmented with the best cybernetics Cerberus can afford.
*** In other words, the best that Cerberus has against a dying alien... and for most of the fight, the dying alien is ''winning.''
*** Tying into that is if you take the Renegade interrupt after your own (successful) fight with Kai Leng - Shepard [[spoiler: breaks Kai Leng's sword with his left fist as the Omni-Blade pops out, stabbing into Kai's side. Cue Shepard saying "That was for Thane, you son of a bitch".]]
*** Thane himself sums it up pretty well:
-->'''Thane:''' That assassin should be embarrassed. A terminally-ill drell managed to stop him from reaching his target.
** Oddly enough, [[spoiler: if Thane didn't survive 2,]] someone else takes the shot for the Councilor... [[spoiler: Major Kirrahe.]] Not as flashy, but just as poignant. [[spoiler:[[TearJerker He held the line.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Pnus16bA4 Also gets his own revenge line later]].]]
* Grunt will choose to do an epic YouShallNotPass moment to hold off a small army of Ravagers by himself. He charges into them, shooting and punching and kicking and beating, before [[spoiler: falling off a cliff into darkness, followed by more Ravagers]]. Weep those ManlyTears for the greatest krogan warrior ever to live. [[spoiler: Then he comes out of the cave, covered in blood but still alive, and asks for something to eat]]. The best part of it all is the music during this scene: while Grunt is fighting off the Ravagers, the music is quiet and sad, a piano solo that confirms that our hero is fighting his final, doomed battle. And when [[spoiler: Grunt survives, the music is a reprise of the triumphant, rising orchestral crescendo at the ending of the first game when Shepard crawls out of the wreckage, battered but alive.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9z2TkVNWlM Needs to be seen to believed.]]
** Adding to that [[spoiler:the requirement for him surviving is that next to saving the Rachni Queen in 1 you had finish his loyalty mission in 2. Which was to help him gain maturity and a clan, essentially giving him a "family" and to learn how to control his rage. This means he survives because he learned how to use his rage when necessary and have something to come back for. He must have had a major determination moment down there.]]
** From the same mission, you can see Grunt's squad pinned down by a group of Husk's. Grunt proceeds to grab a Ravager, lift it completely over his head, and fling it into a chasm. What does he say while doing this?
-->'''Grunt: '''[[CallBack I. AM. KROGAN!!]]
* Ambassador Dominic Osoba's son, Balil Osoba DyingMomentOfAwesome. Pretty much he [[TranquilFury slowly marched into the Cerberus forces]] on Benning, gunning down dozens of them to save his squad, the civilians they were evacuation, and the shuttle.
--> ''He was just so calm while he did it. Like he was daring Death to come take him]]
* A little early, but if you weren't overcome by the sheer awesome of how [[spoiler:Earth is facing annihilation by a massive Reaper Fleet]] in ME 3's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geTD0gWh8w0 debut trailer]], you need to rethink your place in life.
** Awesome? Try ''horror''. But, from a gamer's perspective, yes. [=BioWare=] is certainly going to conclude the trilogy with a [[GrandFinale bang]]. Or [[StuffBlowingUp several]]. [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu How many Reapers are there, anyway?]]
-->'''Sovereign:''' We are legion. The time of our return is coming. Our numbers will darken the sky of every world.
*** Nope, definitely awesome. Why? [[spoiler:If the humans produced ''one'' Shepard, who's to say they weren't working on making ''more?'' The Reapers made Earth their primary target out of ''fear.'' When your entire world becomes a bogeyman for a race of unstoppable galactic death machines, due to the accomplishments of ''one'' of your people? That. Is. AWESOME.]]
* '''[[CoolVersusAwesome Reaper vs. Thresher Maw.]]''' They are riding out to complete another mission but have to contend with a Reaper destroyer, all hope seems lost. Shepard is forced to go on foot when the Krogan convoy is taken out, travelling through an ancient Krogan city talking about the Thresher Maw to end all Thresher Maws on Tuchanka. When conversing with Wrex about it, they realize that Tuchanka is its' home too and won't like a Reaper stomping around. So, as shown during Grunt's rite of passage, they decide to summon the Thresher Maw and point it at the Reaper. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSb7lxVn7Gk The end result is insane.]] Shepard is literally running underfoot of the giant sentient spaceship trying to hit him/her with a beam of molten metal fired approaching the speed of light. S/He dodges and weaves through the incoming fire, avoids things that pop out of the ground too fast for you to even get a good look at them, and then narrowly avoids being stepped on by the Reaper. Then the drums are sounded, and you know the Maw is angry. The Maw ''lunges'' out of the ground and tackles the Reaper, wrestling for a minute before the Reaper gets an angle to shoot at it, only to miss because it went underground again. Then it resurfaces and wraps itself around the Reaper, crushing it and dragging the thing underground. James Vega gets it right pretty early in the video: "Holy shit!"
** ...''[[Film/{{Dune}} Shai-Hulud]]''.
--->'''Shepard:''' "Wrex! Do we have mawsign?"
--->'''Wrex:''' "Shepard, we have mawsign the likes of which even Reapers have never seen!"
** An extra layer of awesome is added if Shepherd has the Sole Survivor origin. This scene is basically his/her two biggest enemies fighting each other.
** This moment is even better in the game, as the Thresher Maw is identified as [[AwesomeMcCoolName Kalros, Mother of all]] [[SandWorm Thresher Maws]]. Garrus puts it best:
--->'''Garrus Vakarian''': "When [[BloodKnight the Krogan name a]] [[SandWorm Thresher Maw]], you know you're in trouble. They don't think ''anyone'' is ever going to kill it."
** If you think about it, Shepard sicced the Queen of All Threshers against an ageless, eldritch abomination starship... because it was in his way of his ''real'' objective. Speaking of which to even get Karlos s/he has to contend with a ''Reaper'' in the way. Yes, a '''Reaper.''' On foot. [[LampshadeHanging Which Shepard calls attention to.]] Does that stop them? HaHaHaNo
** And if you think it can't get any better: on Earth, Wrex mentions Kalros again, implying it SURVIVED!
* The brief dialogue at the end of the E3 trailer, between Shepard and the Defense Committee:
--> '''Committee Member''': What can we do?
--> '''Shepard:''' The only thing we can do: We '''fight''' or we ''die''!
* Par for the trope, the Normandy's GunshipRescue as Shepard escapes Earth with Anderson.
** Anderson actually volunteers to stay behind on Earth and help the surviving humans. This alone is pure awesome for that man.
* A video at E3 shows Shepard at a geth base. You call in the Normandy to blow up a base, but then discover it's actually a Reaper. A Reaper who's now a little annoyed at you. You run onto a small ship piloted by Legion, and start running away with the Reaper running after you, as you fire at it from a turret on the top of the ship. You stay away long enough for the quarian fleet in orbit to fire on the Reaper, apparently hurting it. Then it gets back up. Holy crap, this will not be easy.
** In the actual game, the orbital strike hits the firing chamber and does put it down, but the jamming signal means the fleet can't target precisely enough to hit the weak spot on purpose. Shepard's solution? Sync the target painter to the ''entire flotilla'' and face the Reaper ''on foot.'' Repeat: you aim a laser at it for the quarian fleet to fire at from orbit. You need to do this four times. The last time, the thing is right on top of you.
*** Take the Renegade option when Shepard talks to the dying Reaper afterward and take the Renegade Interrupt. Shepard pulls out the laser ''again'' and aims at the Reaper's eye.
---->'''Shepard:''' "[[PreAssKickingOneLiner Tell your friends we're coming for them]]." [Another orbital strike finishes the Reaper off] "[[BondOneLiner Never mind. I'll tell them myself.]]"
*** Bonus points for the reapers reaction, it will stare at Shep for a moment when he/she aims the beam and then look up at the arriving orbital strike as if it was thinking "oh cr..."
* The Special Forces trailer. It’s like Commander Shepard has an army of the most well trained soldiers in the galaxy, second only to his elite team, ready to clean up the remnants of the Reaper forces after he's done.
* During the second demo mission, you help Mordin [[spoiler: and Wrex]] get an important Krogan female off the Salarian homeworld. After you've held off the [[spoiler: Cerberus]] forces attacking you, [[spoiler: Wrex offers his hand to help Eve out of the containment pod she was in the entire mission. When two more Cerberus mercenaries show up out of nowhere to attack, Eve, instead of taking Wrex's offered hand, grabs his shotgun and blows them both away. ''With one hand''. Krogan women kick ass.]]
-->"Women."
* During the mission on Sur'Kesh, Shepard can run into Captain (now Major) Kirrahe, who, when [[spoiler:Cerberus]] forces deploy heavy armor forces and drone guns, he blows them up with a sticky grenade launcher pistol. By himself. [[TheLancer Garrus]] wants to know [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys where he can get a cool toy like that]].
-->'''Garrus:''' How do ''I'' not have one of those?!
** You can get one a little bit later in the mission. It is just as awesome as it looks in that cutscene.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG2mdZ23eP8 Mass Effect 3's launch trailer]] sells it for us just like Mass Effect 2 yet again, with an incredible soundtrack, amazing visuals and fantastic directing all around. It all '''feels''' like the ending of a saga, but makes you prepared to make the final march to save the galaxy. Be careful, Shepards.
** The incredible soundtrack? Titled ''[[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything Protectors of]] [[FridgeBrilliance the Earth]]''
* [[TearJerker Heartbreaking as the ending is,]] these tweets from Emily Wong as she comes to the end of her livetweeting the Reaper invasion:
-->Go on. Make your noise. Try to scare us.
-->You want to see how a human dies? At ramming speed.
** Another, more subtle one for Emily. Her live reporting provided a treasure trove of Intel on how the Reapers operate. There's no telling how many lives she might save.
* Two words: [[spoiler:Prothean. Squadmate.]]
* Wrex's quote to oncoming [[spoiler:Ravagers]] as Shepard and his/her squadmates get ready to hurry to cure the [[spoiler:Genophage.]] [[spoiler:"I am Urdnot Wrex. And THIS IS MY PLANET!"]]
* Mordin [[spoiler:sacrificing himself]] to get the [[spoiler:genophage cure]] into Tuchanka's [[spoiler:atmosphere]]. His responsibility [[spoiler:to the end]].
-->'''Shepard:''' I'm sorry.
-->'''Mordin:''' [[spoiler: I'm not. Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.]]
** [[spoiler: His final words before the control room explodes around him. The calm conviction in the face of death.]]
-->'''Mordin:''' [[spoiler: Genophage cured. Krogan free. New beginning...for all of us.]]
** [[spoiler:Gets even sadder if you try to stop him. Shouting "I MADE A MISTAKE!", and then if you shoot him, he dies literally trying to ''crawl'' to the control panel. It was supposed to be his moment of redemption.]]
*** [[spoiler: For added effect, this is probably the only time Mordin uses the first person pronoun "I" when not performing; he really feels that it is his personal responsibility to cure the genophage. And he will do it if it costs him his life.]]
*** Also a CallBack. [[spoiler: Mordin claims that it is a new beginning for everyone just before dying. In Mass Effect 2, he expressed a believe in reincarnation. He ''literally'' believes that this is his chance to come back and ''do better.'']]
*** If you have a save file from Mass effect 2 where you got Mordin to sing his "Scientist Salarian" song [[spoiler: he sings it to himself to keep his nerve in an exploding tower. His voice cracks up with emotion when the cure is dispersed and he has a faint smile on his face]]
*** Take the awesome up a notch further: As Mordin keys in the activation code to release the cure, he glances at the waiting elevator, but stands his ground. Instead of trying to save himself after getting the job done, he still stays in place to make sure it works.
*** This becomes even better when you remember that Mordin frequently mocked Kirrahe for this ideology- stating that he "preferred to get the job done and go home." [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Not this time.]] [[CallBack Mordin held the line!]]
* Conrad saving the life of Shepard, could wind up as a HeroicSacrifice or a subtle BigDamnHeroes moment when the Cerberus contact tries to kill Shepard (who no longer travels across the citadel in armor but rather casual outfits).
** If you got Conrad to start his charity group in the second game, he tells Shepard that he spent everything he had in order to get the kids to safety.
** And if you did the side quest to get that waitress in Chora's Den in the first game to safety, she saves Conrad's life. So. Conrad provides valuable data on Dark Matter to the Crucible, saves war orphans, and gets the girl... all thanks to you.
* Lieutenant Victus, son of the Turian Primarch, gives his life to disable the Cerberus bomb [[spoiler: that they stole from the Turians]] threatening to destroy a high population center in Tuchanka. His sacrifice gives Shepard valuable time to solidify an alliance between the Turian and Krogan states.
-->'''Victus:''' Victory... at any cost.
** Turians also firmly believe in HeroicSacrifice and RedemptionEqualsDeath, so for Victus, all past mistakes and sins are forgiven, forever.
* A seemingly random minor sidequest on the Citadel to track down someone using batarian diplomatic codes can end with Balak, villain of ''Bring Down The Sky'' having a gun pointed at the back of Shepard's head, blaming Shepard for the destruction of the batarian civilization. Shepard can then convince Balak to not only put the gun away but to add his fleet to Shepard's cause. Repeat: Shepard entered a situation with a gun to the back of his/her head by an enemy s/he personally defeated and who blames Shepard for the death of his society, and Shepard ''turns him to his/her side.''
** GoodIsNotSoft: Though Paragon Shepard isn't happy.
--->'''Officer:''' Was that our culprit? Do you want me to arrest him?
--->'''Shepard:''' I ''want'' you to put a bullet in his head, but we're ''all'' making sacrifices today.
** Or, if you don't have the Reputation chops (or just hate the murdering SOB ''that much),'' you can casually knock the gun out of his hand and blow him away. PayEvilUntoEvil, indeed.
** The Renegade response is just oh, so worth it, as Shepard doesn't plead, doesn't negotiate, doesn't even provoke Balak, but simply flat-out states that if Balak kills him/her, the alliance Shepard's been building will crumble, the Batarians will be wiped out like everyone else, and ''Balak knows this.''
* During the final part of the Rannoch mission, [[spoiler:it's just you, on foot, dodging blasts that can level buildings so you can point the targeting laser at a Reaper's weak spot so ''[[MoreDakka the entire Quarian fleet and the Normandy]]'' can blow it to hell]].
** Paragon Shepard's speech to the Quarian fleets if you opt to resolve to make peace between the two warring species. [[spoiler:Succeeding when you have Admirals Tali and Zaal'Koris's assistance is the complete icing on the cake, of course. And you realize at the end that Shepard's invocation of the common quarian phrase is literal here: s/he wants to see his/her homeworld someday in the future, too.]]
--> '''Shepard:''' All ships. This is Commander Shepard. The Reaper is ''dead''. Stand down. [...] The geth are about to return to full strength; if you keep attacking, they'll wipe you out. Your entire history is ''you'' trying to kill the geth. You forced them to rebel, you forced them to ally with the Reapers! [...] The geth ''don't want to fight you!'' If you believe that for just one minute, this war will be over! You have a choice. '''Please.''' ''Keelah se'lai''.
*** The speech also doubles as a TearJerker, since you got to know the translation of "Keelah se'lai" not long before this mission (It means "By the home world I hope to see one day."). It rings true for Shepard just as much as it does for all the quarians.
** The Renegade intimidation speech to the Quarian fleets will also result in peace between the two warring species, with a much more pragmatic flair to appeal to Han'Gerrel's sensibilities.
--> '''Shepard:''' All ships. This is Commander Shepard. If you don't want to be blown out of the sky in about half a minute, '''stand down now'''. [...] The geth are about to return to full strength; if you keep attacking, they'll wipe you out. A few years ago I saved you at the Citadel, just recently, I saved you from the Geth dreadnaught, but I'm '''through''' saving you. If you don't stand down, I will stand by and watch as Geth lay you to waste. It's your call. Keelah se'lai.
* A Renegade Interrupt involves Shepard approaching Han'Gerrel, the quarian admiral who was gung ho about starting a war with the geth in [=ME2=], was one of the ones who pushed for the war with the geth to start now, in the middle of the Reaper invasion, and then opened fire on the geth ship where Shepard was on a mission to and destroying it just before Shepard could escape, and punching him in the stomach for his reckless endangerment of Shepard, demanding he get the hell off the ship.
** Even a Paragon Shepard would be tempted to take that option. Recklessly endangering civilians and/or Shepard's squad are two things you should ''[[BerserkButton definitely never do]]'' when s/he's around. Combined with the Paragon interrupt you get with Xen a few minutes later, it gives the impression that [[MessianicArchetype Jesus Shep]] has [[BewareTheNiceOnes finally had enough of this crap]].
*** When Admiral Xen, who wants to enslave the Geth, asks how Shepard was able to get Geth Primes to join the cause, he smiles and answers, "They ''volunteered''" in such a way you can translate his response as "Screw you."
* Best Interrupt in the game (even more than [[spoiler: shooting Udina]]) - [[spoiler: Kai Leng, battered and broken after your fight with him, picks himself up off the floor, grabs his sword and approaches Shepard. S/he turns, shatters the sword, and impales Kai Leng with the omni-blade.]]
** "[[spoiler:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeiLJVWUeb0 That was for Thane, you son of a bitch.]]]]"
** Alternatively, "[[spoiler:That was for Miranda, ''you son of a bitch.'']]"
** [[RuleOfThree Alternatively-alternatively]] - "[[spoiler:That was for Kirrahe, you son of a bitch.]]"
** If [[spoiler:Kai Leng kills Thane and Miranda]] - "[[spoiler:[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk7uIjr10Ig That was for Thane and Miranda, you son of a bitch.]]]]"
*** [[spoiler: But let's be honest. Who wasn't mashing the KickTheSonOfABitch button?]]
** In the event that [[spoiler:Kirrahe and Thane both died prior to [=ME3=], and Miranda survived Horizon[=/=]died in [=ME2=]]] - "[[spoiler:[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVu_0wR32Io No gunship this time, you son of a bitch.]]]]"
** Bonus points for symbolism. Cerberus calls itself the "Sword of humanity" and that sword just got fucked up by Commander Shepard, the REAL savior of humanity.
** Another alternative? Don't take the interrupt. [[spoiler: Paragon Shep will dodge the blade, spin around and gut Kai like a fish anyway. With the same lines as mentioned earlier.]]
** There's also a good line in the final battle between them, where [[ShutUpHannibal Shepard effectively shuts up Leng's taunting]] that they won't beat Cerberus by retorting they're still going to kill him anyway.
-->'''Kai Leng''': [[YouAreTooLate Even if you win, you're too late to stop what's coming!]]
-->'''Shepard''': Maybe, maybe not...but '''''YOU''''' won't be there to see it!
** It's worth noting that the Soldier and Sentinel classes are the only ones that use the standard omni-blade as their heavy melee attack. The other four use something very different. Is it developer laziness? Or is it those four classes deliberately using the omni-blade once in the entire game just to invoke a KarmicDeath?
* The war to retake Earth is on par with the battle of freaking-Armageddon. With enough planning you hit your cybergod enemies with the might of an entire galaxy. [[spoiler:This includes elements from every state and alien government, AIs, pirates, mercenaries, dinosaur-riding krogan and enough dreadnought fire to burn a hundred worlds to ash. Seemingly invincible kilometer long Reapers are torn to shreds by the sheer weight of numbers, Shepard kills not one but TWO additional destroyers on foot, every surviving crew member takes part in the ground battle, and the Mako returns.]] This is the scene that each player had been working towards for 3 games, 100+ hours, and five years. Truly, it is the battle for all time.
** The visual confirmation is the cutscene as you bring the armada into the Sol system. T-minus 30 seconds to drop-out of FTL. [[http://youtu.be/tHIAibDr3yM Out of the Mass Relay pops the Normandy...then a few dozen Alliance battleships. Then more Turian ships.]][[HolyShitQuotient Then a few Live Ships, hundreds of geth and quarian ships, several asari dreadnoughts, including the Destiny Ascension, more turian gunships than countable, and entire fleets of single-man fighters.]] [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Every star in the sky is an ally.]]And for bonus points, it also looks like they're engaging the Reapers on ''even ground.''
** Unfortunately the score hardly does the scene credit. Instead I might suggest syncing it to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTsD2FjmLsw&t=01m12s Suicide Mission]], [[http://youtubedoubler.com/3Cka which matches up]] ''almost perfectly''.
*** Someone actually did this and edited out the dialogue. It makes a fantastic scene even better. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Ss_nSe_mw Check it out.]]
** Particularly that the way the Reapers literally double-take, almost seems to suggest that the following is crossing their mind:
--> '''Reapers''': Shepard will fail, they have no cha- OhCrap! [[ThisIsGonnaSuck HOW DO WE STOP HIM/HER?!]]
** On top of all that, the music that plays is the main theme for Humanity, the Normandy and Shepard that was played during the introduction on the Normandy, Shepard's induction and the victory against Sovereign in Mass Effect 1. Not counting Vigil from the main menu and Saren's theme from the character creator, it's the first main theme the player hears in the trilogy, and while it does feature in Mass Effect 2 and 3, the last time it was recognizably played was at the end of the first game when Shepard declares his or her dedication to stopping the Reapers. And now it blares here, representing the full force the galaxy has brought together for their survival, effectively acting out Shepard's promise.
* The final run to the teleportation tower leading to [[spoiler:the Citadel]]. Hammer forces have to cross a large space of open ground, hoping that at least some will make it through and enable the fleet to make the final strike against the Reapers, and so spread out to make a massed charge of vehicles and soldiers on foot. Knowing the vulnerability of the tower, Harbinger himself lands next to it and starts shooting everything with his [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill giant lasers meant to destroy dreadnoughts in a single hit]]. With the assault force disintegrating around him/her, Shepard keeps running for the tower, eventually getting hit by the laser. Satisfied, Harbinger flies away... [[{{Determinator}} but Shepard gets back up with serious injuries, his/her power armor effectively reduced to slag, and keeps limping for the final 20 meters, retrieving a pistol on the way. Shepard even manages to kill a few husks and a Marauder, despite being shot without any shielding or armor, before collapsing on the teleportation pad.]]
** What was it the Vigil recording said over and over? "THEY CANNOT BE STOPPED!" [[FridgeBrilliance Neither can Shepard]]
* Hackett's RousingSpeech at the beginning of the final battle.
-->"Stand fast, stand strong, stand together. Hackett out."
* Samara's daughters at the [[spoiler: Ardat-Yakshi monastery. The older one, Rila, resists indoctrination and transformation into a Banshee long enough that she can set off a bomb, blowing the place, and the biggest stockpile of banshees, to hell.]] Morinth, you are no longer Samara's strongest and bravest daughter.
-->[[spoiler: '''Rila:''']] '''[[DefiantToTheEnd We are not your slaves.]]'''
* A renegade Shepard can deliver a ShutUpHannibal to a Reaper [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VWwzYffw5A by ordering the entire Quarian fleet to fire right on its face.]]
* EDI's cyberwarfare and IFF system is sophisticated enough to fool Reapers into thinking that the Normandy is a friendly Reaper intelligence. The funny part? To EDI will then say that simply sounding like a Reaper isn't enough anymore. She actually imitates a Reaper, complete with her voice suddenly dropping several levels to the point that it almost sounds like Harbinger talking on the Normandy's bridge.
-->'''EDI:''' Reaper interrogation signals do not simply look for a friendly transponder code, they look for a friendly intelligence. The extra keys help me seamlessly swap in simulated intelligence identifiers from divergent synthetic origins.\\
'''Adams:''' I see. So we need all the copies to seem like a living Reaper.\\
'''EDI:''' Yes. I tried saying, "[[AC:humans are dust in the stellar wind]]," but apparently that is no longer sufficient.
* During the mission to save the Cerberus Scientist defectors, Shepard gets taken down by mech while trying to get to the escape shuttle. Cue Jacob jumping out the shuttle to save Shepard, taking out several Cerberus Soldiers and the same mech with just an Assault Rifle, [[HandicappedBadass all the while suffering from a bullet in the gut.]]
* The Rannoch Missions [[spoiler: if Shepard manages to make peace between the geth and the quarians. Let me repeat, Shepard managed to end a conflict that all others thought was unresolvable. [[MessianicArchetype Messiah]] much?]]
** [[spoiler: Even better is the fact that it is the biggest middle finger you can give to the Reapers' philosophy]].
* Shepard taking down the Reaper on Rannoch and their subsequent conversation firmly cements Shepard's status as TheDreaded.
--> '''Dying Reaper''': ''Shepard?!''
--> '''Shepard''': You know who I am?
--> '''Dying Reaper''': Harbinger speaks of you.
** Depending on your choices in the conversation, Shepard can take a Paragon or Renegade interrupt. Paragon involves giving a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, during which Shepard shoots down the Reaper's claim that the Reapers are preserving the long since harvested races by pointing out that those races supposedly preserved are still dead. Renegade has Shepard pull out the targeting laser once again.
--> '''Shepard''': [[PreAssKickingOneLiner Tell your friends we're coming for them]].
--> ''[The Normandy and Quarian Fleet fire another artillery strike and kill the Reaper]''
--> '''Shepard''': [[PostMortemOneLiner Never mind, I'll tell them myself]].
* Heavy weapon use is dialed down a bit in ''3'' - instead of carrying them with you, you tend to find them on specific missions and can only use them there. During the siege on London in the endgame, the Cain makes a triumphant return [[spoiler:when Shepard uses it to take out an anti-air Hades Cannon.]] Click...BOOM.
** Even better - [[spoiler:If you look in the wreckage of the crashed shuttle, you'll notice ''there's a second Cain''. Provided you don't screw up the first shot, you can pick it up and use it to OneHitKill the Banshee that turns up]]. And considering if [[spoiler:Morinth survived ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' and Samara didn't, she turns up as a Banshee as well]], it's a ''hell'' of a dose of LaserGuidedKarma.
* At Huerta Memorial Hospital, you can overhear a PTSD-stricken asari explain what happened to her. She was on a human colony and was staying with some farmers and using their shower when Reaper forces arrived. She fled and took the farmers' daughter with her... who then proceeded to [[spoiler:kill several husks with only a stick. One human girl, frightened, takes down husks with a stick.]]
** What do you expect? It was Joker's sister.
** [[spoiler: This painfully veers into {{TearJerker}} territory when the soldier explains the real reason for her PTSD: she had to kill the human girl while they were hiding because the girl broke her leg and her pained whimpering was threatening to give away their position to the husks.]]
* When [[spoiler:Cerberus attacks the Citadel and Shepard is having a standoff with the council and the Virmire Survivor]] everyone is slow to believe Shepard's claims that [[spoiler:Udina is staging a coup.]] Then, after three games of apathy and condescending crap, the Asari councilor ''finally'' points out that [[TheCassandra they haven't trusted Shepard before]] and each time, it's come back and bitten them in the ass.
** To make it even better, if you've talked things out with Ashley/Kaidan, she/he will make the decision to trust you and [[spoiler:turn on Udina.]] Hear that? That was the sound of all the leftover trust issues from Horizon shattering.
*** Even if you have not spoken to them, you can still pull out the charm, provided [[RelationshipValues you still have some clout with them.]] A Renegade choice will have you tell them you would regret shooting them for the rest of your life, but you would do it if you had to, and that the ball is in their court. Paragon, however, will have Shepard tell Ashley/Kaidan that they know in their heart Shepard is right, that they always do the right thing, no matter what, and they need to trust their own instincts. And either way, they put the gun down.
---> '''Shepard:''' You've always stood true to what you believe in. I admire that most about you. Trust your gut, Kaidan.
*** It's even better considering that the whole reason for the conflict between Shepard and Kaidan/Ashley is because the Illusive Man attempted to drive them apart for his own plans. This one moment proves that [[EvilCannotComprehendGood their bond is stronger than that]].
** Not just that, but the memetic jerkass Councilor Sparatus (Ah, yes. "Reapers") personally thanking Shepard. His tone just sounds so sincere.
* The Illusive Man gets one in an archived video at Cerberus Headquarters. [[spoiler:Right before he's about to undergo the most likely excruciating surgery that would let him control Reapers he asks for no anesthetic]]. He often looks like a callous bastard and he's extreme even for a WellIntentionedExtremist, but you get the sense he wants to feel every sacrifice done in Humanity's name.
* Talking TIM into killing himself at the ending. Another indoctrinated pawn of the Reapers falls at the Citadel, much like Saren.
** Shooting him yourself is just as satisfying.
** As is executing the greatest possible "Fuck You" to TIM when invading his base:
-->'''The Illusive Man:''' Shepard. You're ''in my chair.''
* Anderson leading the anti-Reapers resistance. Sure, you [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome don't see much of it]], but you still see the result: Earth is one of the first planets attacked, Humanity's homeworld takes the brunt of the Reapers' wrath, its main cities are destroyed within days if not hours, yet Anderson manages to mount a resistance movement, reorganize the Humans living outside the cities efficiently enough that not only does Earth resist until the very end of the game (after [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas Thessia]] has gone silent and [[SpaceRomans Palaven]] has been abandoned by Turians who cannot both [[SadisticChoice defend their homeworld and prepare to escort the Crucible]] anymore), but Anderson has managed, [[SerialEscalation with no help from the outside]] to prepare a final assault against the Reaper beam in London. He's like [[StiffUpperLip Churchill]], [[RebelLeader John]] [[RobotWar Connor]], and [[TheStrategist Garibaldi]] [[TheSiege defending Montevideo]] all rolled into one.
** What's even more badass for Anderson is that he's the ''only'' person who [[spoiler: somehow made it to the Citadel besides Shepard in the final rush, possibly even ''before'' them and not even getting as badly injured as them to boot!]] No wonder why even Shepard looks up to him.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maXhcKlGSqo Bilal's]] [[HeroicSacrifice last stand]].
* From Glyph you hear the story of a colony that chose to [[TakingYouWithMe nuke itself]] [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled rather than be]] [[MoreThanMindControl indoctrinated]].
* The "Eye of the Hurricane" achievement; or rather, killing a Brute as it charges at Shepard? Badass. Try killing a Brute as it charges at Shepard, ''by using the Biotic Charge''.
** You want even more awesome? Do that in multiplayer with your level 20 character and no BulletTime.
* How about the final fight? Shepard's team completely alone defending their last missiles, while the bulk of Hammer is falling, and any victorious reaper forces going against you, the only things you can hear are the banshee's screams, and the sound of the reaper's beam and scream. And then, if you hadn't enough with too many banshees for your own good, the reaper destroyers starts targeting ''you''. And only then the music starts.
* Renegade Shepard's speech convincing [[spoiler:the Quarians not to open fire on the Geth was particularly amazing. "A few years ago, I saved you from the geth at the Citadel. Just recently I helped you take out that dreadnought. But I'm through saving you. If you keep attacking, I will ''stand and watch'' as the geth lay you to ''waste''." They listen.]]
* Paragon Shepard's interrupt when [[MadScientist Admiral Xen]] starts talking about how she wants to run tests on Legion:
-->'''Xen''': This is a fascinating prototype. With some study, I may be able to use it to find a weakness in the Geth consensus.
-->'''Shepard''': Legion helped me in the fight against the Collectors.
-->'''Xen''': [[{{Jerkass}} So did your pistol.]] [[FantasticRacism Should we show concern for its feelings as well?]]
-->'''Shepard''': (interrupting) ''I don't think you want to continue this line of thought, Admiral.'' Legion is my friend, and more importantly, he's our best source of information on the Geth.
-->'''Xen''': The scientific benefits-
-->'''Shepard''': ''Are off the table.''
** This scene becomes doubly awesome if you just took the Renegade interrupt to [[spoiler: punch Han'Gerrel in the stomach for firing on the dreadnought while you were still inside. There's a heavy subtext of "I just punched one Quarian admiral and threw him off my ship. You want to make it two?"]]
** It's especially impressive if you can then bring about a peaceful end to the Morning War. You have managed to seriously piss off fully half of the Quarian Admiralty Board, and ''still get them on side''.
* Eve, full stop. All we've seen among the Krogan are bloodthirsty idiots. Wrex is Gandhi by comparison, but Eve - it seems that she's the ''real'' leader of the Krogan. To wit, she made the most subtle power grab in the galaxy and almost no one saw it. She accepted Wrex's plan to consolidate all the females - and in doing so, she turned the genophage into a biological LysistrataGambit. She's clearly intelligent, has no use for idiocy, and is willing to let the male Krogans play their games. She ''also'' knows why the Salarians and Council created the genophage, and won't repeat that mistake again. She may allow the Krogans to regenerate ''en masse'' to fight the Reapers, but she broadly hints that she's going to make sure the Krogan limit their reproduction (and generally, mothers don't want to deal with a dozen kids anyway.)
** To say nothing of Eve snatching away Wrex's shotgun during the rescue, uses it to mow down two Cerberus shock troopers, and then tosses the shotgun back at Wrex and mocking his overly polite chivalry at the same time. Also doubles as a CrowningMomentOfFunny.
--->'''Eve:''' [[DamselOutOfDistress I can handle myself, Wrex.]]
--->'''Wrex:''' Women.
** With just one word she stopped a bloodbath between the male Urdnots. Then she united them against the Reapers.
--->'''Eve:''' Enough! You can stay here and let old wounds fester, [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech as krogan have always done.]] [[StopBeingStereotypical Or you can fight the enemy you were born to destroy, and win a new future for our children!]] I choose to fight. [[DareToBeBadass Who will join me?!]]
** Post-ending flashcards, if Wreav is the Urdnot leader but Eve survived, have one of Wreav building a krogan army... and one of Eve facing him with an army of her own.
* Say what you will about the endings, but TheStinger, where the trilogy is implied to have been a story an old man identified as "Stargazer" is telling his grandson, will blow minds upon realizing that the old man is voiced by ''Buzz Aldrin''.
-->'''Boy''': ''Did all that really happen?''\\
'''Stargazer''': ''Yes, but some of the details have been lost in time. It all happened so very long ago.''\\
'''Boy''': ''When can I go to the stars?''\\
'''Stargazer''': ''One day, my sweet.''\\
'''Boy''': ''What will be there?''\\
'''Stargazer''': ''Anything you can imagine. Our galaxy has billions of stars. Each of those stars could have many worlds. Every world could be home to a different form of life. And every life is a special story of its own.''\\
'''Boy''': ''Tell me another story about the Shepard.''\\
'''Stargazer''': ''It's getting late but, okay... one more story.''
* Speak to Kirrahe before going into the STG labs. He promises Shepard that, regardless of the decisions of the politicians, the salarian STG will help when called. Particularly if you later [[spoiler: cure the genophage,]] pissing off Dalatrass Linron and causing her to revoke the official salarian support for the fleet to retake Earth, seeing an entire branch of the salarian military essentially telling their leaders ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight is pretty damn awesome.
* Cerberus are revealed to be semi-huskified and heavily indoctrinated. Check out their reaction to Shepard showing up on Mars;
--> '''Cerberus Trooper''': [[OhCrap HOLY SHIT!]] IT'S ''[[TheDreaded SHEPARD!]]''
** Now realize that Shepard is scaring the hell out of people who ''[[BeyondTheImpossible can no longer think or feel anything for themselves.]]''
* Miranda gets one for appearing to be the ''only'' person in the entire galaxy who ''doesn't'' expect (or ask) Shepard to solve her problems. Every time you meet her you can offer to help her, and every time she tells you that you have bigger things to worry about. [[spoiler: Sure, she ends up needing your help in the end, but that doesn't detract from how far she got on her own.]]
** There's also her [[NeverFoundTheBody badass biotic takedown]] of [[spoiler:her own father Henry Lawson]] if you should succeed in [[spoiler:persuading him to let Oriana go]].
* The Alliance cruiser SSV ''Shanghai'' pulls off an [[OffScreenMomentOfAwesome insane off-screen]] rescue mission; evacuating a colony in the span of an hour.
* On the battle for Earth, EDI gets her's as she [[spoiler: personally guides two Thanix Missiles directly into the "eye" of the poor Reaper Destroyer guarding the beam, ensuring its destruction. Her [[PostMortemOneLiner post mortem one-liner]] is just as awesome: "Destroyer terminated!"]]
* As you're firing the [[spoiler: Thanix Missiles on Earth at the Destroyer defending the Citadel beam]], the cutscene will show your squadmates defending you. Depending on who you have and what weapons equipped can sometimes alter what happens as they shoot incoming Cannibals and Husks. Such as Tali shooting a Cannibal point blank in the face. With a Claymore. ''One handed.''
* The Extended Cut's [[TakeAThirdOption fourth option]]. [[spoiler:You can resist the options given to you by the Catalyst by either [[ShutUpHannibal shooting it in the face]], or [[KirkSummation deliver a final speech about what you fight for and why you will not summit to its will]]. It might just end [[KillEmAll badly]], but offering the Catalyst naught but defiance that essentially boils down to "Screw you and the squid you rode in on. You don't get to make our choices for us" is ever so satisfying and evocative of the fantastic scene with Sovereign on Virmire way back in the first game.]]
-->'''Catalyst:''' [[spoiler:Your time is at an end. You must decide]]
-->'''Shepard:''' [[spoiler:No. I'm going to end this war on my terms.]]
-->'''Catalyst:''' [[spoiler:Then you are going to die knowing that you failed to save everything you fought for.]]
-->'''Shepard:''' [[spoiler:I fight for freedom, mine and everybody's. I fight for the right to choose our own fate. And if I die, I'll die knowing that I did everything I could to stop you. And I'll die free.]]
-->'''Catalyst:''' [[spoiler:SO BE IT!]]
** [[spoiler: EC turns the original, of-questionable-quality endings into actually pretty badass endings. Special mention goes to the Control ending, where Shepard becomes ''all of the Reapers'' and essentially names himself/herself as GOD-EMPEROR OF SPACEKIND.]]
** The Destroy ending. [[spoiler: The Reapers are utterly defeated, with races all of the Galaxy celebrating with their burnt out carcasses in the background. The relays and Citadel are damaged, but quickly repaired, and the ending implies that the Citadel takes root above a restored Earth, now the epicenter of galactic politics. Yes, the geth and EDI die, but they die because Shepard chose to reject, as they did, the Reapers as a source of progress and advancement, instead giving life a future utterly free of them. On top of all that, Shepard can survive, and will likely be reunited with his/her crew very soon if he/she lives.]]
*** Citadel is a ruin. Anderson's dead. Geth and EDI are dead, but so are the Reapers. Shepard was blasted almost point-blank by dreadnought-scale canon, and has been at the ground zero of a galaxy-wide doomsday device initiation. Have enough military power and... *GASP*
*** The Destroy ending has [[FridgeBrilliance an additional, awesome implication]]: [[spoiler: The Catalyst makes it clear that it believes that the cycle of organic conflict with synthetics will continue if you go with this option. In other words, the Catalyst is willing to let you destroy the entire cycle, millions of years of maintaining this process of genocide and construction, and take your chances on a cycle that it believes is inevitable, simply through virtue of the fact that Shepard united the galaxy and brought the Crucible to the Citadel. The Catalyst is willing to let you destroy everything it created, and in the process invalidate the entire purpose that it followed unwaveringly for millions of years, because Shepard is ''just that badass''.]]
*** The Synthesis ending is [[spoiler: just as good, in a different way. You get to bring all organic life to a higher state of existence and the Reaper's archive of all the millions of years worth of diverse civilizations, culture, and knowledge that they harvested can live once again among the newly ascended species. It’s a Singularity gone right.]]
*** The Control ending: [[spoiler:Shepard basically becomes God; uploading into the Citadel basically supplants the Catalyst as the controlling entity of the Reapers and his/her perspective expands to an incomprehensibly vast scale. Using the Reapers, which are now implements of his/her will, Shepard repairs the Relay Network, and goes about restoring the damage done much like how the Synthesis-Reapers do in the Synthesis ending, and then wards over galactic civilization. Essentially, Shepard'st chosen method, be it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX7HDcvw2pk Paragonic, Renegade or Neutral]], is basically saying "You're doing it wrong" to the Catalyst.]]
* Not as big as most moments listed here, but Paragon Shepard admitting to Wrex, Eve and Mordin about the Salarian Dalatrass wanting him/her to sabotage the Genophage cure. Even if Shepard needs the help of the Salarians, s/he won't betray Wrex's trust, is also a CrowningMomentofHeartwarming.
* Using the Renegade interrupt after Liara's "father" mentions the possibility of the Matriarchs ordering a hit on her, if she's your LI.
-->'''Shepard''': That's not going to happen.
-->'''[[spoiler:Aethyta]]''': (slightly taken aback) No argument here. I only took these crap jobs to keep the matriarchs happy she's under control.
-->'''Shepard''': Just as long as we're clear; [[IronicEcho nobody messes with my girl]].
-->'''[[spoiler:Aethyta]]''': (laughs) Maybe you're good enough for her after all.
* The aftermath of the Extended Cut could be seen as a CMOA for Creator/BioWare itself. The fact that it was able to end one of the biggest fan backlashes in video game history without fundamentally rewriting the ending is pretty impressive. Of course, there's still a {{Broken Base}} but considering the enormous scale of the controversy, this is a massive acomplishment. Good job [=BioWare=].
** Doubles as a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming that they even bothered to do the Extended Cut, and that they brought back every person who did voice acting for the game in some measure, and ''made the DLC free.''
* At the end of [[ThatOneLevel Grissom Academy]] Shepard finds an abandoned Atlas Mech. Given the difficulty of the mission and what Cerberus had turned into it's a wonder s/he and Jack were not jumping up and down in glee. The player most certainly will be though, stomping around nigh invulnerable gunning down Space Nazis.
* On Rannoch Shepard badassfully mans the turret on the Normandy's shuttle. A Geth fires a rocket at it and it ''goes through the open hatch on one side and out the other.'' Whoa.
* From the launch trailer, Shepard turns their back on a husk, completely dismissing them to instead go and perform a flying take down of a ''Brute'', with a look on their face that clearly says, "Finally, at least they gave me a ''challenge!''"
** Throughout the entire trailer, Shepard is duel wielding both the M-96 Mattock Assault Rifle and an omni-blade. Upon seeing the brute, the Mattock is seen flying - Shepard literally threw it away in favour of a melee take down.
** Hell, just the fact Shepard was ''duel wielding'' in the trailer. Didn't make it into game mechanics, but still badass.
* The description/Codex entry for the planet [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Cyone Cyone]]. "The three species are so determined to defend Cyone that integration issues have been negligible."
** And: "[[StandYourGround [T]hey pledge it will fall to no enemy, organic or synthetic]] ... [[YouShallNotPass The task force has already thrown back several Reaper attacks]]." ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Several. Reaper. Attacks]]''.
* Completing the Leviathan DLC [[spoiler: gets a MindRape squad...on YOUR side, from the race that STARTED the whole mess in the beginning.]]
** Not to mention it's the single most valuable unaugmented war asset in the game.
* A combination of [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Awesome]] and [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Funny]], when looking for clues to Garnaeu's location in the Leviathan DLC, you can investigate a fragment of Sovereign. Shepard's response?
-->'''Shepard:''' ''Sovereign, '[[CallBack vanguard of our destruction.]]' [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu How's that]] [[DeadpanSnarker working out for you,]] [[BondOneLiner big guy?]]
* In ''Leviathan'', we discover that [[spoiler: TheRemnant of the Leviathan race have watched the Reaper's harvest civilizations for ''millions'' of years and in all the many Cycles, nothing has ''ever'' changed. However, the Leviathan go on to refer to Shepard as "[[TheChosenOne An Anomaly]]", having not only become the first serious threat the Reapers have ever faced, but the first thing they've seen the Reaper actually ''[[TheDreaded fear!]]'']]
** [[spoiler: Which begs the question of whether an EldritchAbomination has ever proclaimed someone to be TheChosenOne before?]]
* Finally, a little moment, but when Shepard gives his/her final words to the Leviathan about joining the war effort against the Reapers, the Leviathan ''actually goes silent''. It's avatar in Shepard's mind stops walking and just stands there, saying nothing for about 10 seconds, thinking on Shepard's words, before finally admitting to understanding why the Reapers fear this seemingly PunyEarthling.
-->'''Leviathan:''' Your confidence is singular.
-->'''Shepard:''' I've earned it: out there fighting, where you should be.
-->'''Leviathan:''' It is clear why the Reapers perceive you as a threat. Your victories are more than a product of chance.
** As you're leaving Despoina, a Reaper dreadnought -- the big two-kilometers-long ''Harbinger''-class, mind -- drops out of orbit, straight at your shuttle... and [[spoiler: Leviathan just ''[[HolyShitQuotient turns it off]]''.]]
* Sadly, you only get to hear it if you [[YouMonster backstabbed Wrex over the Genophage]] but Major Kirrahe comes up with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpooE7C8Xs8 something which blows his 'Hold the Line' speech out of the water]].
* [[spoiler:The creator of the Reapers and their cycles? Yeah, ''you change its mind on the Reapers''. It is even willing to help you destroy the Reapers, even though doing so leaves its problem of organic/synthetic conflict unaddressed.]] Shepard's been shown to be very charismatic throughout the series, but never before have they [[spoiler:persuaded someone that Shepard's goal is more important than ''the very reason for its existence''.]]
* [[https://twitter.com/Mark_Meer/status/243035423323062272 Mark Meer cosplaying as Shepard at [=DragonCon 2012=]]]. Does anything ''[[SugarWiki/SoCoolItsAwesome more]]'' need to be said?
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZqwuHFIgIA The Retaliation DLC trailer]] is one for Harbinger.
* Aria's renegade speech to the Omega population:
--> '''Aria''': [[CallBack And the galaxy will understand one rule]]: Don't [[PrecisionFStrike fuck]] with Omega.
* Aria's paragon speech to the Omega population is a callback to "I am Omega!"
-->'''Aria:''' WE. ARE. OMEGA.
* After [[spoiler: Nyreen makes a HeroicSacrifice]], Aria goes on a short but very satisfying RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Highlights include using her biotics in such a way it’s only been seen in [[CutscenePowerToTheMax cutscenes]] before, some of which are strong enough to stagger Shepard. And when you do get to Petrovsky, Aria- who's probably one of the most potent Biotics seen in the series- [[spoiler: foregoes all of that to choke him to slowly to death.]]
--> '''Aria''': [[spoiler: [[ToThePain Oh no...you don't get to go...]] [[TranquilFury not yet...]]]]
* A collective CMOA for Shepard and Nyreen in ''Omega'' if playing full-Paragon. Throughout the mission, various characters (including Aria herself) keep telling Shepard that no matter what you do, Aria will never change her die-hard Renegade ways. However, [[spoiler:if you stick to the Paragon's path, Aria lets Petrovsky go--something she would have never even considered before journeying with Shepard and Nyreen's sacrifice]].
** Aria's entire shift into JerkWithAHeartOfGold territory is brilliantly written, since you see it slowly dawn on her ''why'' Paragon Shepard and Nyreen have such UndyingLoyalty from their respective teams. Instead of treating the people of Omega like mere cannon-fodder for Cerberus, by acting diplomatic and trying to prevent unnecessary civilians casualties, she has gained an loyal army of followers, ready to fight and die for her.
* In the multiplayer any time [[OneManArmy you complete an entire mission on your own.]] Especially [[DemonicSpiders Collectors]] - a feat not even ''Shepard'' is capable of!
* The reintroduction of Wrex in ''Citadel'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okGt_1rNsf0 is GLORIOUS]]: A shuttle full of troops drops down and opens fire on Shepard, only to have Wrex [[CallBack krogan airdrop]] down on it hard enough to force it to the ground, jump inside, shoulder tackle a [=CAT6=] mercenary, causing the entire shuttle to rock back for a moment, and start tossing guys out. Wrex does this without pulling out his gun even once. Kind of easy if you're a krogan, weigh a metric ton, and are in melee range with humans who [[TooDumbToLive didn't turn their shields on]], but still.
** The [=CAT6=] mercs tend to get one of their own right after for [[HarderThanHard Insanity]] players, when they immediately [[BestServedCold drop Wrex right afterward in vengeance]], provided Shepard doesn't draw their attention. Not bad for CannonFodder!
* The Multiplayer also has a giant krogan [[DropTheHammer wielding a hammer.]] I repeat, a [[PunctuatedForEmphasis GIANT. KROGAN. WIELDING. A. HAMMER.]] [=CAT6=] can count themselves lucky that they dealt with [[StoneWall Wrex]] rather than [[LightningBruiser this guy]].
** Not to mention, you can play as a freakin Geth Prime now!
** [[UpToEleven And as a]] [[MookFaceTurn Collector!]] The closest we're gonna get to playing as a Prothean.
* During the attack at the Sushi restaurant in ''Citadel'', a biotic Shepard finally uses his/her biotics in a cinematic.
** Likewise, Shepard's rescuer will use a character-appropriate means of taking out a pair of mooks. Ashley and Garrus simply shoot them as they would be expected to. Tali zaps them with her omni-tool. Kaidan and Liara use their biotics, and like Shepard, this is the first time Kaidan uses his biotics in a cutscene.
* "Citadel" lets Shepard and Wrex team up one last time to kick some major ass.
* Glyph's BigDamnHeroes moment. Shepard and their crew are trapped inside air sealed containers with only an hour before they run out of oxygen. As the camera slowly zooms out and reveals just how many containers there are and how slim the chances of escaping/getting discovered in time are, Shepard calls for Glyph. And suddenly you see this tiny blue ball of light appearing in a sea of darkness and containers, floating to the exact container Shepard is trapped in. Hadn't it been there, Shepard and their crew might've had no hope of surviving.
** Made even more awesome that while some of the squadmates are worrying about their [[SealedBadassInACan current]] [[AndIMustScream predicament]] and the limited amount of oxygen, Shepard's too busy worrying "DoIReallySoundLikeThat". When they ask him/her to take the situation seriously, Shepard reveals that they ''[[HyperAwareness knew]]'' Glyph was outside and could get them out at ''[[CardboardPrison any]]'' time!
* The fact that the entire fate of the Galaxy hinges on [[spoiler: [[ChekhovsGun Traynor's toothbrush]]]].
* The finale in the Normandy's shuttle bay, after [[spoiler: the clone]] is defeated and just their [[TheDragon dragon]] remains to be dealt with. Take the renegade interrupt...
--> '''[[spoiler:Brooks:]]''' You'll miss me. ''(breaks out of handcuffs and runs, Shepard fires)''
--> '''Shepard:''' [[PostMortemOneLiner Not at this range.]]
** The paragon version is awesome in its own right...
--->'''[[spoiler: Brooks:]]''' Is the great Commander Shepard pleading for his/her life?
--->'''Shepard:''' [[GoodIsNotSoft I'm pleading for]] ''[[GoodIsNotSoft yours]]''.
*** Also, the player gets to see her preparing to break the handcuffs out of sight... then she stops, realizing the futility of it.
** If Shepard doesn't shoot her, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O20Lw53myBg&list=UUTUZ3t6gblhIAp0HC57T5Dg&index=1 your squadmates are more than happy to do the deed.]] Complete with their own unique Bond One-Liners. Hell, they even use unique weapons depending on who takes the shot (i.e. Garrus uses a sniper rifle, Tali uses a shotgun, etc).
-->'''Javik:''' Problem solved.
-->'''James:''' I don't think so.
-->'''Ashley:''' I was really hoping I'd get to do that.
-->'''Kaidan:''' Not likely.
-->'''Garrus:''' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny You know, I meant for that to be a warning shot. Ah well.]]
-->'''Tali:''' Well I won't miss you, you crazy bosh'tet.
-->'''Wrex:''' You're getting slow.
-->'''Liara:''' As escape attempts go, I've seen better.
** Joker then gets in on the act.
--> '''Joker''': (into communicator) Maintenance to the shuttle bay.
* Traynor finally defeating her rival, T'Souza. The latter is left catatonic from how badly she got her ass kicked. Or from the game's pain feedback mechanic.
-->'''Shepard:''' ''(dramatic closeup)'' '''''Kick her ass.'''''
* The Citadel DLC as a whole is a giant CMOA for Shepard's teammates and close allies. As noted above, even GLYPH gets his moment to shine at the end of a mission which involves everyone fighting alongside Shepard for a change, not just two people. Which is also ultimately what allows Shepard to triumph over [[spoiler: his/her clone]].
* Let's face it, the ''Citadel'' DLC is one for the entire production team. It's basically a 6-7 hour long love note to the fans and goodbye to the trilogy and its almost universally beloved cast of characters. It's really hard to think of DLC getting much better than this. Whether Creator/BioWare or the voice actors, all of them delivered their A-Game and really sent the trilogy off on a high note.
** The fact that they do the logical thing and have every playable character come along for once. Sure you only have two in your personal squad, but this aversion of ArbitraryHeadcountLimit is glorious both in that it is logical, and in just how it shows off ''why'' WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou. Shepard still does almost all the work.
* If you saved the Geth but let the Quarians die, when you speak to the Geth Prime before the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, it tells you that the Reapers contacted them once after Rannoch, and they flatly refused to give up their newly acquired sapience, with no compromise. Yes, the Geth finally gave the Reapers the finger once and for all.
* LI!Garrus and Female!Shepard dancing the "Vakarian Tango" on the Citadel. The in-game crowd's reaction says it all.
** Doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny as well, considering Shepard's initial reaction.
** Garrus did the impossible. He made Shepard dance ''well''.
* At one point, Shepard and his/her two squad members get surrounded by [=CAT6=] mercenaries. The two squad members go up a ladder while Shepard covers them, however they barely get up and there's too many for Shepard to risk climbing up. Cue the entire Normandy ground team plus Wrex coming in for a BigDamnHeroes moment and ''[[MoreDakka unleashing hell]]'' on all of the [=CAT6=] mercs in the vicinity.
-->'''Garrus:''' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny And that's the moment when the universe ran out of ammunition.]]
-->'''Wrex:''' [[BloodKnight That's why I love hanging out with you guys]]. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Why shoot something once when you can shoot it 46 more times?]]
* If you let the "Citadel" DLC's final battle go on long enough, this TheReasonYouSuckSpeech happens:
-->'''Shepard''': I'm taking the Normandy back. And honestly, I'm doing you a favor. 'Cause you don't have what it takes.
-->'''[[VillainousBreakdown Mysterious Figure]]''': [[spoiler:I'm Shepard, do you hear me bastard/bitch! I'm Shepard]]!
-->'''Shepard''': No, you're not.
-->'''Mysterious Figure:''' I am [[spoiler:Commander Shepard]]!
-->'''Shepard:''' [[PretenderDiss Are you kidding me?]] ''[[LoonyFan Conrad Verner]]'' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny is better at]] [[spoiler: [[CrowningMomentOfFunny being me]]]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny than you are]]!
-->'''Mysterious Figure:''' My team is better than yours!
-->'''Shepard:''' A team? You have [[{{Mooks}} minions]]! And you're [[AttackAttackAttack running]] [[BadBoss out!]]
-->'''Mysterious Figure:''' You're just cybernetics! Scarred, worn-out Cerberus tech!
-->'''Shepard''': You know where I got those scars? Feros and Noveria and Virmire and Ilos! At the Collector Base and Palaven and Tuchanka and Rannoch and Thessia! I earned these scars protecting the galaxy! ''[[spoiler:You got yours from a petri dish]]''!
* The Armax Combat Arena - Shepard and (if the player chooses) two squadmates take on simulated enemies. Pretty cool, right? Well, the squadmates available are ''everyone who's ever been in Shepard's squad and hasn't died'', so the player can have Shepard being backed up by ''both'' Wrex and Grunt, provided they're still alive. And the enemies? Geth, Reapers, and Cerberus (Now bolstered by Dragoon troopers), and ''the Collectors''. Hell yes.
** All topped by the fifth enemy. The player classes. The first round sends you up against the Soldier, the Engineer, and the Adept. The second round sends you against the Vanguard, the Sentinel, and the Infiltrator. The final round sends you against [[HolyShitQuotient all six]]. If you somehow manage to win, the series' final achievement says it all. The One and Only.
** Also of note, odds are good that at a certain point you'll get a score of 10,000 or over. The issue with this? The score board only goes as high as 9999. You get a message from the arena staff saying that ''Krogan Battlesquads'' haven't been able to get that high. Shepard and crew are so awesome, ''they broke the game!''
* The final stage of the "Unusual Scores" mission in the Armax Combat Arena - You go in, expecting the Spin Cycle arena and Super Elite Geth troopers (Read:Geth Primes and Pyros), only for the arena to be a mess of unfinished digital scenery and flashing red "FATAL ERROR" text on the walls and for ''Collector Praetorians and Abominations to turn up instead''. Make it through that, and then the Geth troops turn up, followed by Cerberus Dragoons and Atlases, Banshees and Marauders, and finally, ''Banshees, Geth Primes, an Atlas and a Praetorian - all at the same time''.
** An in-game example if you're playing as Infiltrator, Engineer, or have Tali on the team. Using a [[EnemyMine Sabotage]] that hits both the Atlas AND the Geth Prime, temporarily turning a 4-Elite death squad into a 2v2 brawl while your team unloads on them.
* After throwing the party at Anderson's apartment in the Citadel DLC, the Normandy's war asset contribution will [[ThePowerOfFriendship increase by 35 points]] (To put things into perspective, the Turian Spec Ops Team is worth 40 points, and a group of Asari Commandos is worth 20). Meaning that by throwing a party and relaxing, Shepard and his/her crew is still contributing to the war effort more than half a fleet worth of firepower!
* During the Missing Krogan Scouts mission, you'll constantly run into the deceased members of the scouting party, who are all conveniently carrying flamethrowers and ammo for you to pick up. About a third into the mission, you'll learn that this is the result of a ThanatosGambit pulled off by the entire squad. They were done for anyway and they knew the next team would need all the help they could get against the Reaper modified Rachni. Every scout charged into the nest and made it as far as possible, deliberately ''not'' using their weapons (or at least as little as possible), so that the next team wouldn't be without ammo or firepower, no matter how deep they were in the nest.
* In ''Citadel'', Steve shows what he can do when he's piloting something that flies more gracefully than a brick. By Joker's direction, he had to stay within thirty degrees of the Normandy's front to prevent it from jumping to FTL, which put him directly in the line of fire. When he kept dodging that, the BigBad sicced the shuttle on him to take him out. He kept dodging that too. And he was doing all this in a ''sky car'', while dodging skyscrapers and arguing with Joker.
-->'''Steve:''' It's nice to fly something more maneuverable than the Kodiak for a change.
* Say what you will about the ''intelligence'' of [[RammingAlwaysWorks Vega's little stunt on Mars]], you have to admit it was at least impressive to watch.
* ''3'' giving you not one, but ''two'' GayOption romances in Steve and Traynor. Despite some FanDumb, both characters have been incredibly well received.
** Not to mention all the BiTheWay romances- primarily Kaidan, who single-handedly gives that section of the fanbase something that at least feels like the trilogy-spanning romances the m/f and f/f options got.
* Cortez is one of the only members of the ''Normandy'' support crew to actually fight with the main team- at the climax of the Leviathan DLC, and during Citadel, where he helps the crew in the overall CurbStompBattle against Cat-6.
* If the leader of the krogan is Urdnot Wreav, he makes it abundantly clear he's going to conquer the galaxy once the war with the Reapers is over. [[spoiler: You can trick him into helping you by faking the genophage cure, and he is none the wiser.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Expanded Universe]]
* From ''[[Literature/MassEffectRetribution Retribution]]'', Kai Leng may be an incredibly [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain xenophobic]] and [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] [[{{Jerkass}} asshole]], but there is no denying that he is a badass. Before the story, the man killed a krogan with a knife in a BarBrawl and during the story's events, he kills six turians, by himself, and again with only a knife, [[spoiler: [[AssassinOutclassin showing off just how he beats Thane later down the line]]]].
* In the prologue of ''[[Literature/MassEffectRevelation Revelation]]'', a young Anderson (recently promoted to N7 status and still a Lieutenant) had a conversation with Admiral John Grissom about the [[PoorCommunicationKills hostile]] [[FirstContact first contact with the Turians]]. In which in a CallForward, he basely gave a massive middle finger to Saren's "Is submission not preferable to extinction?" philosophy in regards to the Reapers (And perhaps in a way, [[spoiler:advocate the 'refuse' ending for ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'']]).
--> '''Grissom:''' Every military engagement has only three options, Lieutenant: engage, retreat, or surrender.'
--> '''Anderson:''' We can't just turn our backs on Shanxi! We have to engage!... [[WithDueRespect With all due respect]].
--> '''Grissom:''' It's not that simple. This is completely unprecedented; we've never faced an enemy like this before. We know nothing about them. [[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant If we escalate this into a war against an alien species, we have no way to predict how it will end. They could have a fleet a thousand times the size of ours.]] We could be on the verge of starting a war that will culminate in the [[KillAllHumans total annihilation of the human race]]. Do you honestly think we should take that risk, Lieutenant Anderson?
--> ....
--> '''Anderson:''' Sir, I don't think we have any other choice. Retreat isn't an option. Now that the aliens know about us they aren't just going to sit at Shanxi and do nothing.
--> '''Grissom:''' And you don't think surrender is an option?
--> '''Anderson:''' I don't think humanity could survive being subjugated under alien rule. [[IDieFree Freedom is worth fighting for]].
--> '''Grissom:''' [[ArmorPiercingQuestion Even if we lose? This isn't just about what you're willing to sacrifice, soldier. We provoke them and this war could make its way to Earth. Think about your wife. Are you willing to risk her life for the sake of freedom?]]
--> '''Anderson:''' I don't know, sir. [[IronicEcho Are you willing to condemn your daughter to the life of a slave?]]
* There's an app that can be downloaded to smartphones that will track your progress in game and send you messages accordingly, as though you ''are'' Shepard in real life. How cool is that?
** Unfortunately, in Summer 2013, the app was removed. So far, the messaging function hasn't been available elsewhere.
* The image from the ninth foundation comic. [[http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131217164234/masseffect/images/2/23/Foundation_Issue_Nine_cover.png The very model of a Scientist Salarian indeed]].
* Shepard has, like, half the entries on this page. Well if one were to look at the character page s/he has one all to themselves. Detailing Shepard's exploits. How many characters full stop have their own page? It's a testament to just how awesome s/he is that Naruto, Batman, Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Buffy Summers, or anyone else had not hit that level of TroperCriticalMass.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Series]]
* In the second game, Kasumi will mention she got Shepard into Badass Weekly. The writer for the real life Website/BadassOfTheWeek thought this was the crowning moment of his career and was so flattered he had to write an entry for the site. [[http://www.badassoftheweek.com/shepard.html Guess who.]]
** The only reason it didn't come out earlier was because the author wanted to finish the trilogy first.
* The character designs are so popular that people have recreated them in real life. [[http://kotaku.com/5560453/this-could-be-the-beginning-of-a-beautiful-mass-effect-2-cosplay This]] [[http://sorceryandglue.blogspot.com/ and this]] are pretty CM for Mass Effect Coplay. Though it'd probably be better called special effect artists play dress up.
** [[http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/323/d/f/thane__i_am_your_judgement_by_manticoreex-d5lh1x2.jpg Thane]]
** [[http://static.cdn.ea.com/blog.bioware.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/wrex.jpg Grunt]]
** [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IxeJzGMj-cs/TjVzIsOY6TI/AAAAAAAAAEA/Tqa8ClewXqg/s1600/004-Urdnot_Wrex_94_37746_640screen.jpg Wrex]]
** [[http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5klllTOBG1qzzhvso1_1280.jpg Tali]]
** [[http://www.tatterhood.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/5.jpg Liara]]
** [[http://www.bamfas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/P1010357.jpg Samara]]
** [[http://www.deltaattack.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/mordin-solus-cosplay.png Mordin]]
** [[https://38.media.tumblr.com/921078a72ae42f816f34f04872d1cdf3/tumblr_msh1ta8YHj1qgu2vjo1_1280.jpg Legion]]
** [[http://38.media.tumblr.com/06c1d7f16fa0d974ad0ed14af20926f1/tumblr_mvwl6vfcNm1r5t9zjo1_500.jpg Garrus]]
** [[http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/322/f/e/javik___mass_effect_3_by_giedriusonline-d6uq46b.jpg Javik]]
** [[http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/arcadesushi.com/files/2013/06/Anatomic-Cosplay-1.jpg EDI]]
** [[http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/253/0/a/garrus_and_nyreen_by_adnarimification-d6lsq5b.jpg Nyreen]]
* Just about any time Commander Shepard gives one of their [[RousingSpeech famous speeches]] is going to be this.
[[/folder]]

* Most games of this style had a SilentProtagonist, or mostly silent for dialogue options. [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 The first game]] had speech for Shepard during cut scenes and the second expanded this to full on conversations, greatly expanding the character and making it much more natural as a whole.

** There's also a good line in the final battle between them, where Shepard effectively shuts up Leng's taunting that they won't beat Cerberus by retorting they're still going to kill him anyway.

** If you think about it, Shepard sicced the Queen of All Threshers against an ageless, eldritch abomination starship... because it was in his way of his ''real'' objective.

* [[https://twitter.com/Mark_Meer/status/243035423323062272 Mark Meer cosplaying as Shepard at [=DragonCon 2012=]]]. Does anything ''[[SoCoolItsAwesome more]]'' need to be said?

* Aria's renegade speech to the Omega population-

** You can actually choose to go full Paragon until that interrupt. It's almost better because the 'bad cop' has done literally nothing against him the entire time until one little misplaced taunt sends him [[BerserkButton: flying off the handle]]. To put this in perspective, if you only take that renegade interrupt, he is so terrified that he spills everything after one threat.

* In the second game, Kasumi will mention she got Shepard into Badass Weekly. The writer for the real life Website/BadassOfTheWeek thought this was the crowning moment of his career and was so flattered he had to write an entry for the site. [[http://www.badassoftheweek.com/shepard.html Guess who.]]
** The only reason it didn't come out earlier was because the author wanted to finish the trilogy first.

[[folder: Series]]

--> Miranda: [[PreAssKickingOneLiner You'll die for that,]] [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch!]]

---> '''Shepard''': [[spoiler:With all due respect Admiral, I didn't do it for one of "your people"; I did it for one of '''mine''']]

** What's even more badass for Anderson is that he's the ''only'' person who [[spoiler: somehow made it to the Citadel besides Shepard in the final rush, possibly even ''before'' them and not even getting as badly injured as them to boot!]] He's one of the very first N7 graduates for a reason.

The Mass Effect Trilogy is a series of Crowning Moments of Awesome.

[[folder:Mass Effect: Andromeda]]
See [[Awesome/MassEffectAndromeda this page]] for AwesomeMoments related to ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda''.
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