Awesome / Disco Elysium

WARNING: Spoilers are off on Awesome Moments pages.

• Every time a skill guides you through a situation without fail. Things fall into place, you anticipate every reaction and adapt to your circumstances on the fly - it makes your Defective Detective look like he's playing chess when everyone else is still on Tic-Tac-Toe — like when playing on the Hardie Boys' pride, when Authority and Drama push the right buttons, help you isolate the weak link among them and help you stay on track so you don't get distracted by threats and pissing contests.
  • A particular standout is Volition realizing that Klaasje's manipulating you through her beauty and spy training. It then informs you that nearly all of your skills (except itself, Encyclopedia and, to a degree, Inland Empire) have been compromised and can't be trusted - every time you're around her, Volition will poke holes in the others' arguments, like Logic trying to immediately rationalize another suspect or Rhetoric giving suspiciously moderate answers. This doubles as a moment of awesome for the game itself - this is the moment Disco Elysium confirms that you're not going to finish this without thinking.
• Shooting the corpse down from the branch is an incredibly difficult shot guaranteed to awe all witnesses, most of all Kim, from whose perspective this is probably the first display of true competence from you since you two have met.
• Measurehead is a towering hulk of a man that everyone is terrified of taking on, if only due to him being on a narrow bridge. You can nonetheless knock him out, and with a spinning kick no less.
  • The alternative route around Measurehead, jumping off a roof into the docks, is no less awesome, with time briefly stopping around you in midair as your senses take in the world. Odds are you've failed the check at least once, you flailing and taking health damage from each attempt - succeeding feels like you're finally getting yourself back together. Even if you had to take your pants and shoes off to make the check.
• Every successful Visual Calculus roll. The world shifts around you, letting you reconstruct complicated scenes and events in your mind from tiny details, sometimes even the likes of centuries-old war crimes.
  • Particularly showcased in the last Visual Calculus check in the game. It is plot-critical, but the roll does not really matter — the skill will refuse to accept a failed roll because this is too important. This the only instance in the game this happens to any skill.
• Getting the True Ending requires a lot of difficult checks, risks and prep work, but leaves all your colleagues, who came over to assess whether you're even mentally fit to keep working at all, congratulating you on a job well done.
• Cindy's graffiti:
  • After the shootout near the Whirling-in-Rags, Cindy the Skull finally finds the words for her masterpiece — graffiti on the ground, letters each as tall as you are, written in a mixture of heavy fuel and blood, some of it your blood:
    UN JOUR JE SERAI DE RETOUR PRÈS DE TOI^note One day I will return to your side.
  • Since the fuel is still fresh, you can then set it on fire. Kim is no less awed by it than you are.
    You: DISCO ELYSIUM.
• The mindboggling moment near the end when you realize that Lena's story will not be one of heartbreak after all.
• If you succeed most of the skill checks during the Tribunal, the scene is pretty much a succession of Crowning Moments of Awesome, and a redeeming moment for your character:
  • You march into the middle of the stand-off, armed only with a muzzle-loaded pistol in the face of three heavily-armed and armoured mercenaries who sneer that you ought to leave. You successfully keep them talking, sowing the seeds of doubt in their minds, before shooting their leader through the cheek with a single quick-draw shot.
  • Meanwhile, the short-sighted Kim mutters a quiet, desperate prayer as he takes down the second mercenary with an impossibly-difficult shot through the visor — and then can heed your warning in time to blow away the third.
  • And Titus Hardie, who's been largely a threatening and antagonistic force in the game up to this point, rallies to your side as soon as you're shot, yelling "Protect the cop!" Clearly your heroism had an impact on him.
  • Alternatively, if you fulfill a somewhat specific set of circumstances (more specifically, you must be wearing the Horrific Necktie before you begin to leave the area where you confront Ruby, and you must also purchase the bottle of medicinal spirit from Rosemary) you can get ready "for the end game" by placing the necktie into the bottle, turning it into a deadly petrol bomb. Then, when you throw it at the leader of the mercenaries:
    Beautiful Necktie: In the fiery inferno you see your tie — coiling around the man's neck. It is no longer horrific, but beautiful and *pure*.
    • As one Youtube comment noted:
      Youtube Comment: There's a certain irony in using the firebomb to kill Korty instead of shooting him. If you talk to him about his past war crimes, he proudly mentions how he and his squad routinely obliterated "loinclothes" using a mortar. During this scene, he thinks he's just dealing with some drooling savages who can't fight back... only for one of them to do to him what he's done to countless civilians. He's so accustomed to reducing people to ash with white phosphorus that it completely takes him by surprise when he goes up in flames instead. Inland Empire and the Horrific Necktie have a penchant for being poetic, so they understand that what goes around comes around.
• One of the most disarmingly beautiful scenes in the game is when you and Kim take the boat over to the sea fortress. A Trip Hop song called "Burn, Baby, Burn" plays on your boombox as the boat passes by the ruined coastline and the atmosphere is incredible. It helps that bits of the song have been heard in the music that plays in earlier parts of the game, so it feels like everything is coming full circle when you hear it all in the same piece (much like how the investigation itself is drawing to a close).
• Solving the case with flying colors leaves your squad at a loss for words. You successfully found the murderer, the weapon he used, have a clear understanding of his motive, have good reasons to believe they may have very interesting testimonies to give about other unsolved cases, made the first documented, confirmed sighting of a species of cryptids, broke the deadlock in the harbour and saved the lives of hundreds of people as a result, even if it did play into the plans of Evrart, got your gun and your badge back, all while keeping your integrity and not touching alcohol, drugs, or taking bribes. Some members of your squad will actually express the faint hope that maybe this time, things can truly be different.
  • The part involving the Insulindian Phasmid can be especially impressive if, by succeeding a roll and picking the right dialogue, you find proof that it's actually connected to the case. The Phasmid's pheromones causing chemical misbalance in the Deserter, which is what drove him to kill the Hanged Man, murderous jealousy in watching him have sex from his rifle scope. If you bring this up, your squad is left in shock and amazement at the revelation: not only did you find and prove the existence of a cryptid, it was actually connected to the case and not just a random tangent you went on. Jean, who up until this point always had something contrarian to say, is left completely silent in reaction to this.
• Finding out the actual cause of the Hanged Man's death. You and Kim have just finished the field autopsy, and the case seems to be clear-cut - the victim was hanged, and the state of the body matches this theory to a T. The corpse is ready to be sent to processing, but something is off. Through a fairly difficult check, you decide to examine body one more time, just in case, and in the back of the corpse's mouth you manage to spot a barely visible, swollen shut, bullet hole. You stick your fingers inside the wound, dig around the victim's head, and out comes the bullet. The line you get upon recovering the bullet?
  Secret task complete: Find the bullet before you get fooled
  • The cherry on top? Everyone present is nothing less than awed by your accomplishment. Even the two delinquents who have been doing nothing but yell unhelpful things at you throughout the entire autopsy nearly pipe down as they watch you work your detective magic. Kim, who manages to remain mostly professional through the whole thing, is unmistakably impressed with your performance and intuition by the end.
    He looks you in the eye. "Great work, detective."
• When you finally meet Ruby (who is your prime suspect at the time) she ambushes you with a pale compressor, which is a device that sends radio signals straight into your head causing extreme mental pain. However, despite this, you and Kim are able to push through it and ask her questions about the murder. When checking on Kim he also makes sure you know he has your back.
  Kim: Right behind you officer.
  • Then, if you have high enough Pain Threshold, you can work your way towards the compressor and destroy it, a feat that impresses Kim and even Ruby.
• When you ask the Deserter to hand over his service rifle before the interrogation can proceed, he protests that he'll only lay it down for "an enemy commander of corresponding rank." A successful Authority check allows you to declare that you are an enemy commander of rank, with the added option of introducing yourself as a Lieutenant Double-Yefreitor. The skill notes that the words "sound as cold as iron from your lungs," with it being a rare instance of Harry coming across as authoritative and confident for a change.
• When 'talking' to the Insulindian Phasmid via your Inland Empire, this exceptionally awe-inspiring nigh-Punctuated! For! Emphasis! conversation takes place if you've put points into Volition.
  Insulindian Phasmid: The arthropods are in silent and meaningless awe of you. Know that we are watching — when you're tired, when the visions spin out of control. The insects will be looking on. Rooting for you. And when you fall we will come to raise you up, bud from you, banner-like, blossom from you and carry you apart in a sky funeral. In honour of your passing.
  Volition: In honour of your will, lieutenant-yefreitor. That you kept from falling apart, in the face of sheer terror. Day after day. Second by second.
  Inland Empire: DETECTIVE
  Esprit De Corps: ARRIVING
  Authority: ON THE SCENE

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