History Awesome / TheSilmarillion

** Before any of that, Eärendil's miraculous voyage to Valinor, using the power of the Silmaril itself to find the way and pass through the Enchanted Iles, and Eönwë's EpicHail when he finally does so.

* Fëanor's speeches - hell, Fëanor in general - are, if possible, ''subverted'' Moments of Awesome. They would be textbook Moments of Awesome, except that he's hot-tempered, ruthless, completely obsessed with revenge and his Silmarils, and at least a little crazy. Things don't go very well for his followers, not to mention their neighbors. Even so, he was arguably the biggest badass in the ''Silmarillion'' (the only ones who possess the badassitude to compare with him are Beren, Húrin, Fingolfin, Finrod, and Eärendil). Let's take stock shall we? He reinvented the system of writing that his people used, invented the palantíri, and forged the Silmarils, gems that imprisoned the light of the Two Trees of Valinor, and even he doesn't know how he did that. He slammed the door in the face of the most powerful being in Arda. His speeches have been talked about; he also chased a routed army alone for who knows how long, and the army was too afraid to turn around and fight him. And to top it all of, he has the most badass final fight of any character in the franchise: he fights the balrogs. Not one, like Gandalf or Glorfindel, oh no, he fought ALL of them (ambiguous as their number might be, though Tolkien's later writings has them at 7 total.). At once. For hours. While covered in bleeding wounds and also '''[[IncendiaryExponent ON FIRE!!!!]]''' And even after he gets brought down (which took the arrival of the most powerful balrog, said to be on a similar power level with Sauron), it takes him hours to die of his injuries. And then his corpse spontaneously burns to ash due to his sheer [[HotBlooded hot bloodedness.]].

* Fëanor's speeches - hell, Fëanor in general - are, if possible, ''subverted'' Moments of Awesome. They would be textbook Moments of Awesome, except that he's hot-tempered, ruthless, completely obsessed with revenge and his Silmarils, and at least a little crazy. Things don't go very well for his followers, not to mention their neighbors. Even so, he was arguably the biggest badass in the ''Silmarillion'' (the only ones who possess the badassitude to compare with him are Beren, Húrin, Fingolfin, Finrod, and Eärendil). Let's take stock shall we? He reinvented the system of writing that his people used, invented the palantíri, and forged the Silmarils, gems that imprisoned the light of the Two Trees of Valinor, and even he doesn't know how he did that. He slammed the door in the face of the most powerful being in Arda. His speeches have been talked about; he also chased a routed army alone for who knows how long, and the army was too afraid to turn around and fight him. And to top it all of, he has the most badass final fight of any character in the franchise: he fights the balrogs. Not one, like Gandalf or Glorfindel, oh no, he fought ALL of them (ambiguous as their number might be). At once. For hours. While covered in bleeding wounds and also '''[[IncendiaryExponent ON FIRE!!!!]]''' And even after he gets brought down (which took the arrival of the most powerful balrog, said to be on a similar power level with Sauron), it takes him hours to die of his injuries. And then his corpse spontaneously burns to ash due to his sheer [[HotBlooded hot bloodedness.]].

* The invasion of Valinor itself; both the Valar and the Eldar alike had no confidence in victory against Ar-Pharazôn and his army.
** That was not it. According WordOfGod, the Valar could not punish or coerce Men because they are under Eru's direct authority. Since they were not authorized to stop the Numenoreans, they opted to retreate and let The One deal with them.

** And as a sign of how dangerous dwarves are when avenging their kin when the Dwarves gathered up Azaghal's body and marched from the field for his funeral their fury was so great that none of Melkor's army even bothered to get in their way

** Credit where it's due; Ancalagon and the winged dragons managed to turn the tide on the Hosts of Valinor single-handed before Eärendil showed up.

* Fëanor's speeches - hell, Fëanor in general - are, if possible, ''subverted'' Moments of Awesome. They would be textbook Moments of Awesome, except that he's hot-tempered, ruthless, completely obsessed with revenge and his Silmarils, and at least a little crazy. Things don't go very well for his followers, not to mention their neighbors. Even so, he was arguably the biggest badass in the ''Silmarillion'' (the only ones who possess the badassitude to compare with him are Beren, Húrin, Fingolfin, Finrod, and Eärendil). Let's take stock shall we? He reinvented the system of writing that his people used, invented the palantíri, and forged the Silmarils, gems that imprisoned the light of the Two Trees of Valinor, and even he doesn't know how he did that. He slammed the door in the face of the most powerful being in Arda. His speeches have been talked about; he also chased a routed army alone for who knows how long, and the army was too afraid to turn around and fight him. And to top it all of, he has the most badass final fight of any character in the franchise: he fights the balrogs. Not one, like Gandalf or Glorfindel, oh no, he fought ALL of them (ambiguous as their number might be). At once. For hours. While covered in bleeding wounds and also '''[[incendiaryExponent ON FIRE!!!!]]''' And even after he gets brought down (which took the arrival of the most powerful balrog, said to be on a similar power level with Sauron), it takes him hours to die of his injuries. And then his corpse spontaneously burns to ash due to his sheer [[HotBlooded hot bloodedness.]].

* Fëanor's speeches - hell, Fëanor in general - are, if possible, ''subverted'' Moments of Awesome. They would be textbook Moments of Awesome, except that he's hot-tempered, ruthless, completely obsessed with revenge and his Silmarils, and at least a little crazy. Things don't go very well for his followers, not to mention their neighbors. Even so, he was arguably the biggest badass in the ''Silmarillion'' (the only ones who possess the badassitude to compare with him are Beren, Húrin, Fingolfin, Finrod, and Eärendil). Let's take stock shall we? He reinvented the system of writing that his people used, invented the palantíri, and forged the Silmarils, gems that imprisoned the light of the Two Trees of Valinor, and even he doesn't know how he did that. He slammed the door in the face of the most powerful being in Arda. His speeches have been talked about; he also chased a routed army alone for who knows how long, and the army was too afraid to turn around and fight him. And to top it all of, he has the most badass final fight of any character in the franchise: he fights the balrogs. Not one, like Gandalf or Glorfindel, oh no, he fought ALL of them (ambiguous as their number might be). At once. For hours.
* Fëanor managing to fight against almost all the Balrogs at once, ignoring the flames enveloping him and his bleeding wounds.

* Every time the Fathers of Men took up arms, it resulted in a Moment of Awesome. No, seriously. Just leaf through the pages & locate the deaths of all prominent human warriors. In almost all of these cases, they fell fighting in rear guard actions, making face meltingly awesome Last stands, or conducting guerrilla campaigns deep behind enemy lines. Morgoth's main foe might have been the Noldor, but it was these puny, short lived mortals who caused him the most trouble.

* Ecthelion and Glorfindel's exploits during the fall of Gondolin, The former managed to bring down Gothmog himself, while the latter made it possible for some of the citizens to escape by slaying another unnamed Balrog. [[DyingMomentofAwesome Both of the elves perished in the process.]]

* Huan the Hound of Valinor. He betrayed his villainous masters and rescued Lúthien, he slaughtered Sauron's werewolves and then defeated Sauron himself, saved Beren from Celegorm & Curufin, and in the hour of his passing, took down Carcharoth,the greatest wolf to ever live.

** That was not it. According WordOfGod, the Valar could not punish or coerce Men because they are under Eru's direct authority. Since they were not authorized to stop the Numenoreans, they opted to retreate and let The One deal with them.

** Credit where it's due; Ancalagon and the winged dragons managed to turn the tide on the Hosts of Valinor single-handed before Earendil showed up.

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

* Feanor managing to fight against almost all the Balrogs at once, ignoring the flames enveloping him and his bleeding wounds.

* Huan the Hound of Valinor. He betrayed his villainous masters and rescued Luthien, he slaughtered Sauron's werewolves and then defeated Sauron himself, saved Beren from Celegorm & Curufin, and in the hour of his passing, took down Carcharoth,the greatest wolf to ever live.
* Fingolfin challenges Morgoth to single combat and manages to seriously wound the dark lord before dying. Seven times he injured Morgoth, rising time and again after being smashed to the ground, and when Morgoth crushes him for the final time, Fingolfin permanently cripples the Dark Lord's leg. Not to mention the fact that when Fingolfin was riding to challenge Morgoth, he projected an aura of pure rage so terrible that Morgoth's entire host mistook him for Orome of the Valar and fled.
** Thorondor, the chieftain of the Great Eagles of Manwe not only swoops down and steals the High King's body from Morgoth's own hands, but also '''rakes Morgoth across his face'''!
* Finrod fighting and killing a werewolf with his bare hands.

* Ecthelion and Glorfindel's exploits during the fall of Gondolin, The former managed to bring down Gothmog himself, while the latter made it possible for some of the citizens to escape by slaying another unnamed Balrog. Both of the elves perished in the process.

** For that matter, while it might be [[KickTheSonOfABitch a little vindictive]], seeing how [[{{Satan}} Morgoth]], [[BlatantLies Master of the Fates of Arda]] and mightiest being in all Middle-Earth, ends hie existence [[DirtyCoward on his knees]] [[VillainsWantMercy and begging for mercy]] before he gets his long-overdue punishment, is pretty satisfying.

** For that matter, while it might be [[KickTheSonOfABitch a little vindictive]], seeing how [[{{Satan}} Morgoth]], [[BlatantLies Master of the Fates of Arda]] and mightiest being in all Middle-Earth, ends hie existence [[DirtyCoward on his knees]] [[VillainsWantMercy and begging for mercy]]] before he gets his long-overdue punishment, is pretty satisfying.

** When Glaurung crushed down the Dwarf Lord Azaghul, he [[DyingMomentOfAwesome drove his dagger into the beast's belly even as he died]], sending it screaming back to Morgoth, basically saving every other elf or human warrior from a fiery death.

''So came Tulkas the Strong, whose anger passes like a mighty wind, scattering cloud and darkness before it; and Melkor fled before his wrath and his laughter...''

* When Morgoth shows up at Fëanor's house, the latter 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''.

* Ar-Pharazon and the Great Armament sailing against Valinor. Even though you know it's going to end poorly, and that the Numenoreans have already fallen so far, it's hard not to feel a sense of pride (the Numenoreans still being Human and all) at this line: '''...in that hour the trumpets of Numenor outrang the thunder.'''
* The invasion of Valinor itself; both the Valar and the Eldar alike had no confidence in victory against Ar-Pharazon and his army.

* Lúthien infiltrating Morgoth's fortress, then [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu putting him and his entire army to sleep thanks to her magic]].

* Fingolfin challenges Morgoth to single combat and manages to seriously wound the dark lord before dying.