History Awesome / TheSilmarillion

* In the face of such a disastrous defeat, Sauron concocts a risky BatmanGambit. After surrendering and letting himself to be taken back to Númenor, through charisma and his silver tongue, he eventually became one of Ar-Pharazôn's closest advisers, which let him turn the Númenóreans from being God's chosen to worshipers of Melkor, offering human sacrifices in the name of the first Dark Lord. It all ended in Sauron convincing the now old King into using Númenor's huge army to literally take the heavens by assault, and in return cataclysmic divine punishment was inflicted upon Númenor, of which only those few faithful survived. Of course, the victory came to Sauron at a hefty price (he lost his body when Númenor sank, and was unable to take a fair form ever again), but it still worked in the end.

* Fëanor, despite being a JerkAss, arguably has one of the biggest one in the book. When Morgoth shows up at his house, Fëanor yells "begone from my house, jail-crow of Mandos". And the book points out that he ''slams the door in the face of the most powerful being in the universe''.
** This Troper would argue that Fëanor's death may have been a bigger one. Essentially after chasing an army virutally on his own, Morgoth gets afraid that this elf might actually be a threat and come to the conclusion that the only way to kill the "Soul of Fire" (Fëanor's translated name) is [[{{KillItWithFire}} with more fire.]] So he sends ALL the Balrogs out to fight him. Not one, like against Gandalf, Glorfindel, or Ecthelion (all of those where moments of awesome in their own right). No, he decides to send [[{{ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill}} THEM ALL]]. Turns out that this WASN'T overkill because he manages to fight them all simultaneously for hours until his sons show up with the army to drive them off. Then, in a DyingMomentOfAwesome, his spirit is so "firey" that as it leaves his body, his body burns to ash. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Soul of Fire indeed.]]
* Lúthien surpasses him when she infilftrates said most-powerful-being-in-the-universe's fortress, before [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu putting him and his entire army to sleep thanks to her magic]]. In fact, The Tale of Beren and Lúthien as a whole is a series of Crowning Moments of Awesome. The Elves consider it the greatest tale of the First Age. It's also a Crowning Moment of Awesome for J.R.R. Tolkien, as Beren and Lúthien are [[AuthorAvatar avatars]] of himself and his wife--''and he makes it work.''
** Lúthien and Huan also overthrow Sauron's castle. (Yes, that Sauron.)

* Fingolfin challenges Morgoth to single combat, and manages to seriously wound him before dying.
* Finrod fights and kills a werewolf bare-handed.
* When Túrin killed Glaurung, the source of much of his suffering.

* Eärendil, having sailed to the land of the Valar to beg their aid against Morgoth, returns to Middle-Earth in his flying ship at the head of an army of gods, angels, and giant eagles. His ship leads the air assault against Morgoth's flying dragons, and he personally slays the "greatest of all dragons", Ancalagon. Did we mention he's wearing one of the Silmarils this whole time? It's the one you and us would call ''Venus''.

** What followed certainly is a CMOA for Sauron. In the face of such a disastrous defeat, he concocts a risky BatmanGambit. After surrendering and letting himself to be taken as hostage back to Númenor, through charisma and his silver tongue he eventually became one of Ar-Pharazôn's closest advisors, which let him turn the Númenóreans from being God's chosen to worshippers of Melkor, offering human sacrifices in the name of the first Dark Lord. It all ended in Sauron convincing the now old King into using Númenor's huge army to literally take the heavens by assault, and in return cataclysmic divine punishment was inflicted upon Númenor, of which only those few faithful survived. Of course, the victory came to Sauron at a hefty price (he lost his body when Númenor sank, and was unable to take a fair form ever again), but unlike certain plot involving handing out free pieces of jewelry, this one actually worked!
* Everything Húrin did.
** Well, maybe [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil not]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero everything]].
** [[FacingTheBulletsOneLiner "Aure entuluva! Day will come again!"]]

* The invasion of Valinor itself; both the Valar and the Eldar alike had no confidence in victory against Ar-Pharazon and his army.
** Technically they did it's just the '''act''' of [[StopHelpingMe helping]] would end up badly and turn out like the first time they put off their creation of the world to attack Morgoth who kept tearing apart everything they made. In short: '''badly'''. They couldn't retaliate against Ar-Pharazon and Numneor's attack without wrecking continents like what happened when Melkor/Morgoth ruined the Spring of Arda.

* The fact that Tùrin will avenge his family, not to mention all of humanity, by killing Morgoth.

** Technically they did it's just the '''act''' of [[Stophelpingme helping]] would end up badly and turn out like the first time they put off their creation of the world to attack Morgoth who kept tearing apart everything they made. In short: '''badly'''. They couldn't retaliate against Ar-Pharazon and Numneor's attack without wrecking continents like what happened when Melkor/Morgoth ruined the Spring of Arda.

* The invasion of Valinor itself; both the Valar and the Eldar alike had no confidence in victory against Ar-Pharazon and his army.

** Well, maybe [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil not]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero everything]].

* Lúthien arguably surpasses him when she infilftrates said most-powerful-being-in-the-universe's fortress, before [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu putting him and his entire army to sleep thanks to her magic]]. In fact, The Tale of Beren and Lúthien as a whole is a series of Crowning Moments of Awesome. The Elves consider it the greatest tale of the First Age. It's also a Crowning Moment of Awesome for J.R.R. Tolkien, as Beren and Lúthien are [[AuthorAvatar avatars]] of himself and his wife--''and he makes it work.''

*** Complete

* Lúthien arguably surpasses him when she infilftrates said most-powerful-being-in-the-universe's fortress, before putting him and his entire army to sleep thanks to her magic. In fact, The Tale of Beren and Lúthien as a whole is a series of Crowning Moments of Awesome. The Elves consider it the greatest tale of the First Age. It's also a Crowning Moment of Awesome for J.R.R. Tolkien, as Beren and Lúthien are [[AuthorAvatar avatars]] of himself and his wife--''and he makes it work.''
* Lúthien and Huan overthrow Sauron's castle.

* Lúthien [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu enspells Morgoth]] so that Beren can steal the Silmaril.
** And she ''takes down Sauron!''

* Fëanor, despite being a JerkAss, has the biggest one in the book. When Morgoth shows up at his house, Fëanor yells "begone from my house, jail-crow of Mandos". And the book points out that he ''slams the door in the face of the most powerful being in the universe''.

* Amrod defying his father, Fëanor. Doubles as a major TearJerker.
* The Tale of Beren and Lúthien is a whole story of Crowning Moments of Awesome. The Elves consider it the greatest tale of the First Age. It's also a Crowning Moment of Awesome for J.R.R. Tolkien, as Beren and Lúthien are [[AuthorAvatar avatars]] of himself and his wife--''and he makes it work.''

** What followed certainly is a CMOA for Sauron. In the face of such a disastrous defeat, he concocts a risky Batman Gambit. After surrendering and letting himself to be taken as hostage back to Númenor, through charisma and his silver tongue he eventually became one of Ar-Pharazôn's closest advisors, which let him turn the Númenóreans from being God's chosen to worshippers of Melkor, offering human sacrifices in the name of the first Dark Lord. It all ended in Sauron convincing the now old King into using Númenor's huge army to literally take the heavens by assault, and in return cataclysmic divine punishment was inflicted upon Númenor, of which only those few faithful survivied. Of course, the victory came to Sauron at a hefty price (he lost his body when Númenor sank, and was unable to take a fair form ever again), but unlike certain plot involving handing out free pieces of jewelry, this one actually worked!

* Eärendil, having sailed to the land of the Valar to beg their aid against Morgoth, returns to Middle Earth in his flying ship at the head of an army of gods, angels, and giant eagles. His ship leads the air assault against Morgoth's flying dragons, and he personally slays the "greatest of all dragons", Ancalagon. Did we mention he's wearing one of the silmarils this whole time? It's the one you and us would call ''Venus''.

** This Troper would argue that Fëanor's death may have been a bigger one. Essentially after chasing an army virutally on his own, Morgoth gets afraid that this elf might actually be a threat and come to the conclusion that the only way to kill the "Soul of Fire" (Fëanor's translated name) is [[{{KillItWithFire}} with more fire.]] So he sends ALL the Balrogs out to fight him. Not one, like against Gandalf, Glorfindel or Ecthelion (all of those where moments of awesome in their own right). No, he decides to send [[{{ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill}} THEM ALL]]. Turns out that this WASN'T overkill because he manages to fight them all simultaneously for hours until his sons show up with the army to drive them off. Then in a DyingMomentOfAwesome his spirit is so "firey" that as it leaves his body, his body burns to ash. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Soul of Fire indeed.]]
* Amrod defying his father Fëanor. Doubles as a major TearJerker.

** This Troper would argue that Fëanor's death may have been a bigger one. Essentially after chasing an army virutally on his own, Morgoth gets afraid that this elf might actually be a threat and come to the conclusion that the only way to kill the "Soul of Fire"(Fëanor's translated name) is [[{{KillItWithFire}} with more fire.]] So he sends ALL the Balrogs out to fight him. Not one, like against Gandalf, Glorfindel or Ecthelion(all of those where moments of awesome in their own right). No, he decides to send [[{{ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill}} THEM ALL]]. Turns out that this WASN'T overkill because he manages to fight them all simultaneously for hours until his sons show up with the army to drive them off. Then in a DyingMomentOfAwesome his spirit is so "firey" that as it leaves his body, his body burns to ash. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Soul of Fire indeed.]]

** What followed certainly is a CMOA for Sauron. In the face of such a disastrous defeat, he concocts a risky Batman Gambit. After surrendering and letting himself to be taken as hostage back to Númenor, through charisma and his silver tongue he eventually became one of Ar-Pharazôn's closest advisors, which let him turn the Númenoreans from being God's chosen to worshippers of Melkor, offering human sacrifices in the name of the first Dark Lord. It all ended in Sauron convincing the now old King into using Númenor's huge army to literally take the heavens by assault, and in return cataclysmic divine punishment was inflicted upon Númenor, of which only those few faithful survivied. Of course, the victory came to Sauron at a hefty price (he lost his body when Númenor sank, and was unable to take a fair form ever again), but unlike certain plot involving handing out free pieces of jewelry, this one actually worked!

** What followed certainly is a CMOA for Sauron. In the face of such a disastrous defeat, he concocts a risky Batman Gambit. After surrendering and letting himself to be taken as hostage back to Numenor, through charisma and his silver tongue he eventually became one of Ar-Pharazôn's closest advisors, which let him turn the Numenoreans from being God's chosen to worshippers of Melkor, offering human sacrifices in the name of the first Dark Lord. It all ended in Sauron convincing the now old King into using Numenor's huge army to literally take the heavens by assault, and in return cataclysmic divine punishment was inflicted upon Numenor, of which only those few faithful survivied. Of course, the victory came to Sauron at a hefty price (he lost his body when Numenor sank, and was unable to take a fair form ever again), but unlike certain plot involving handing out free pieces of jewelry, this one actually worked!

* Everything Húrin did.

** This Troper would argue that Fëanor's death may have been a bigger one. Essentially after chasing an army virutally on his own, Morgoth get's afraid that this elf might actually be a threat and come to the conclusion that the only way to kill the "Soul of Fire"(Fëanor's translated name) is [[{{KillItWithFire}} with more fire.]] So he sends ALL the Balrogs out to fight him. Not one, like against Gandalf, Glorfindel or Ecthelion(all of those where moments of awesome in their own right). No, he decides to send [[{{ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill}} THEM ALL]]. Turns out that this WASN'T overkill because he manages to fight them all simultaneously for hours until his son's show up with the army to drive them off. Then in a DyingMomentOfAwesome his spirit is so "firey" that as it leaves his body, his body burns to ash. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Soul of Fire indeed.]]

** What followed certainly is a CMOA for Sauron. In the face of such a disastrous defeat, he concocts a risky Batman Gambit. After surrendering and letting himself to be taken as hostage back to Numenor, through charisma and his silver tongue he eventually became one of Ar-Pharazôn's closest advisors, which let him turn the Numenoreans from being God's chosen to worshippers of Melkor, offering human sacrifices in the name of the first Dark Lord. It all ended in Sauron convincing the now old King into using Numenor's huge army to literally take the heavens by assault, and in return cataclysmic divine punishment was inflicted upon Numenor, of which only those few faithful survivied. Of course, the victory came to Sauron at a hefty price (he lost his body when Numenor sank, and was unable to take a fair form ever again), but unlike certain plot involving handing out free pieces of jewelry, this one actually worked!

** This Troper would argue that Fëanor's death may have been a bigger one. Essentially after chasing an army virutally on his own, Morgoth get's afraid that this elf might actually be a threat and come to the conclusion that the only way to kill the "Soul of Fire"(Fëanor's translated name) is [[{{KillItWithFire}} with more fire.]] So he sends ALL the Balrogs out to fight him. Not one, like against Gandalf, Glorfindel or Ecthelion(all of those where moments of awesome in their own right). No, he decides to send [[{{ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill}} THEM ALL]]. Turns out that this WASN'T overkill because he manages to fight them all simultaneously for hours until his son's show up with the army to drive them off. Then in a DyingMomentOfAwesome his spirit is so "firey" that as it leaves his body, his body burns to ash. [[{{Foreshadowing}}Soul of Fire indeed.]]

** This Troper would argue that Fëanor's death may have been a bigger one. Essentially after chasing an army virutally on his own, Morgoth get's afraid that this elf might actually be a threat and come to the conclusion that the only way to kill the "Soul of Fire"(Fëanor's translated name) is [[{{KillItWithFire}} with more fire.]] So he sends ALL the Balrogs out to fight him. Not one, like against Gandalf, Glorfindel or Ecthelion(all of those where moments of awesome in their own right). No, he decides to send [[{{ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill}} THEM ALL]]. Turns out that this WASN'T overkill because he manages to fight them all simultaneously for hours until his son's show up with the army to drive them off. Then in a DyingMomentOfAwesome his spirit is so "firey" that as it leaves his body, his body burns to ash. Soul of Fire indeed.

** This Troper would argue that Fëanor's death may have been a bigger one. Essentially after chasing an army virutally on his own, Morgoth get's afraid that this elf might actually be a threat and come to the conclusion that the only way to kill the "Soul of Fire"(Fëanor's translated name) is [[{{KillItWithFire}} with more fire.]] So he sends ALL the Balrogs out to fight him. Not one, like against Gandalf, Glorfindel or Ecthelion(all of those where moments of awesome in their own right). No, he decides to send [[{{ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill}} THEM ALL]]. Turns out that this WASN'T overkill because he manages to fight them all simultaneously for hours until his son's show up with the army to drive them off. Then in a DyingMomentOfAwesome his spirit is so "firey" that as it leaves his body, his body burns to ash. Spirit of Fire indeed.

* One of the first things Haleth did on entering Beleriand was to CurbStomp a band of orcs.
* Eärendil, having sailed to the land of the Valar to beg their aid against Morgoth, returns to Middle Earth in his flying ship at the head of an army of gods, angels, and giant eagles. His ship leads the air assault against Morgoth's flying dragons, and he personally slays the "greatest of all dragons", Ancalagon. Did I mention he's wearing one of the silmarils this whole time? It's the one you and I would call ''Venus''.

** What followed certainly is a CMOA for Sauron. In the face of such a distraous defeat, he concots a risky Batman Gambit. After surrendering and letting himself to be take as hostage back to Numenor, through charisma and his sliver tongue he eventually became one of Ar-Phrazon's closest advisors, which let him turn the Numenoreans from being God's chose to worshippers of Melkor, offering human sacrifices in the name of the first Dark Lord. It all ended in Sauron convincing the now old King into using Numenor's huge army to literally take the heavens by assault, and in return cataclysmic divine punishment was inflicted upon Numenor, of which only those few faithful survivied. Of course, the victory came to Sauron at a hefty price (he lost his body when Numenor sank, and a was unable to take a fair form ever again), but unlike certain plot involving handing out free pieces of jewelry, this one actually worked!

** What followed certainly is a CMOA for Sauron. In the face of such a distraous defeat, he concots a risky Batman Gambit. After surrendering and letting himself to be take as hostage back to Numenor, through charisma and his sliver tongue he eventuaklly became one of Ar-Phrazon's closest advisors, which let him turn the Numenoreans from being God's chose (at that point they were already becoming defiant to the Valar and Illuvatar, though) to worshippers of Melkor, offering human sacrifices in the name of the first Dark Lord. It all ended in Sauron convincing the now old King into using Numenor's huge army to literally take the heavens by assault, and in return cataclysmic divine punishment was inflicted upon Numenor, of which only those few faithful survivied. Of course, the victory came to Sauron at a hefty price (he lost his body when Numenor sank, and a was unable to take a fair form ever again), but unlike certain plot involving handing out free pieces of jewelry, this one actually worked!