Awesome / Sword of Truth

• Richard Cypher, the main hero of the books, has at least two of 'em (regardless of whether you like the books or not, they're pretty cool). First, he uses his wits to trick Darken Rahl everyone in the climax of the first book using a unprecedented three variety plan glued together with The Power of Love. Later on in the series, after being captured and taken to the enemy's capital city in the Old World, he has a CMOA on low-boil as he systematically improves the lives of everyone he meets, befriends a group of bullies intent (at first) on shanking him in a dark alley somewhere, employs himself at a blacksmith's shop and stonecutter and through sheer savvy and imagination makes himself wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice by using the Order's byzantine socialist system against itself. In his spare time, he carves a statue which embodies his view of the human spirit which will eventually cause the populace to change their socialist view and revolt. Oh, and all that money he made? When he is captured and thrown in prison, he arranges to use just a small part of it to pay his own fine many times over.
• During Stone Of Tears, Richard has one running through the whole book, where he practically takes over the Palace of the Prophets through deal-making and sheer charisma; by the next book, half the soldiers stationed there by the Imperial Order elect to follow him instead of their emperor.
• Near the end of Stone of Tears , Richard has one near the end of the book when he marches into the chamber of counselors of the Midlands, demands to know who sentenced Kahlan to death, then proceeds to slaughter all who were in attendance. So awesome, in fact, that when the guards do finally arrive, they show their loyalty to the Mother Confessor and allow him to leave.
• The opening chapters of Blood of the Fold. Armed with nothing more than an invisibility cloak, four dominatrices in form-fitting leather, and a giant hairy beast for a pet, Richard first takes over the D'Haran occupying force of Aydindril, and then dictates terms to all of the ambassadors of the Midlands, demanding their surrender. Weeks later, Kahlan and Zedd, who had been fleeing the city trying to come up with a plan to take it, and the Midlands, back in order to fight the Imperial Order, receive a letter from Richard which basically says that he's done all their work for them and to come back home.
  • Gratch has one in the end of the book. A massive melee has broken out in Aydindril, with belligerent D'Harans, backed by the Imperial Order, marching on the city, Richard and Kahlan are leading his loyal D'Harans and others in the defense, when Mriswiths show up, and all seems lost...until Gratch descends from the sky leading every short-tailed Gar in the Midlands to the rescue.
• There's also the conclusion of the fourth book, which sees Richard ripping out his traitorous half-brother's spine with his bare hands, while dying of a plague. Preceded by the lines, in a callback to something Zedd said earlier about the Seeker:
  Drefan: You don't even have your weapon.
  Richard: I am the weapon.
• In the sixth book, when Zedd and Warren decide to show the Order's army "an old-fashioned firefight". When it's wizards doing the talking, one of whom is over a hundred and the other who's actually won a war using magic, that's the time you get behind them. Because everything in front of them is going to be on fire.
• Zedd and Adie managing to hold off the entire millions-strong Imperial Army from entering Aydindryl. Alone. Including managing to Schmuck Bait Emperor Jagang into entering the city with nothing but a small bodyguard unit, turning said bodyguard unit into chunky salsa, nearly killing Jagang himself, and in the meantime, setting off what amounts to be a Magical Nuclear Warhead (!!!) in the middle of the enemy camp, carving out perhaps 10-20% of their entire force and crippling their efforts for weeks.
• Whenever Nathan Rahl is on screen and not doing something involving prophecy, chances are he's doing something awesome and looking good doing it. The man aspires to be the Jarlaxle of the SoT series.
• Pretty much any time Chase shows up, he's either about to do something awesome, or he just finished doing something awesome. Earlier in Wizard's First Rule, Richard hints at Chase's Badass Normal feats by telling Kahlan "To Chase, a quad (i.e. four-man hit squad) would be just a bit of fun." Chase later proves that Richard wasn't kidding by taking on Demmin Nass and two quads at once, alone against nine of the biggest, meanest, and most elite warriors of D'Hara, and kills five of them before they can subdue him. Later, tied up and apparently immobile, Chase somehow manages to get to his feet, grab one of the surviving quad men, and breaks his neck, while his own hands are still bound. Later, after the bloody fights are finished, Chase is perfectly fine and ready to march to the People's Palace to confront Darken Rahl. Zedd comments then that boundary wardens are tougher than they have a right to be.
• Later in the series, Chase returns to business by mounting a rescue in the middle of the Imperial Order's several-million-man-strong camp, and then appearing out of nowhere in the last book to help Rachel fight off a squadron of Imperial Order troops(see below). Chase also probably has the biggest proportion of Big Damn Heroes moments for his appearances.
  • Rachel has her own fair share, though mainly of the small-scale waifish variety. She manages to trick both Richard and Kahlan to keep them from finding the Box of Orden she has hidden in a loaf of bread she carries. Later on, she helps rescue Zedd from the heart of the Imperial Order camp by sneaking in after him, most likely knowing full well what the Order's soldiers do to little girls. After setting him free and helping to escort him out of the camp, she and the group are confronted by suspicious guards. Without even breaking in stride, she grabs a pair of daggers strapped to her legs and flips them over her shoulder to Chase, who proceeds to embed them in the guard's vitals.
    • How can we forget in the last book, she gives Richard back his powers by altering the big complicated spell drawn on the wall. Screw doing a simple change like Richard did in the first book, she added lines to change the spell's meaning. How did she do this? She listened.
    • Also in the final trilogy, she has one that merges with Chase's toward the end. Early in the plot, she feels compelled to return to Tamarang to escape the "ghosty gobblies." She makes it across the continent, which is swarming with Order troops, by, among other things, stealing directly from Imperial Order soldiers, and using all the skills Chase has taught her since the first book. After the above CMOA, she escapes and is on her way back toward Aydindril when she runs into an Order patrol, and she stands and fights. Half way through the fight, Chase shows up and the pair of them finish the rest of the soldiers.
• Halfway through the last book, Richard starts a bloodsport riot that turns the millions of men of the enemy army against themselves. You heard me, he kills hundreds of thousands of invading enemy soldiers by starting a sports riot. The single highest point of the last three books. After sinking an arrow into Jagang's chest from 100 yards and a few dozen obstacles away, Kahlan's sight was blocked again. But when she looked up...:

  He had a sword.

• Nicci, if her character already wasn't badass enough, gets one in Chainfire when she fools a group of Imperial Order soldiers into thinking she's the mayor's wife, infiltrates the camp of the Imperial Order by pretending to be a hostage under guard, and kills one of their gifted. She is then confronted by Brother Kronos, a powerful wizard who proceeds to boast about how powerful he is and how she doesn't stand a chance against him in the gift and how he's going to brutalize her for what she's done. Then, while Kronos has all his shields up and ready at full strength, she sweeps them aside like they're nothing and blows a mellon-sized hole through his chest. And then she dominates several platoons of soldiers, lays waste to their encampment, and rides back to the city with the enraged soldiers right on her tail . . . and leads them straight into a trap.
  • As if that weren't enough, shortly after its revealed that the Order brought along a third wizard who proceeds to wreak bloody havoc on their forces. Nicci comments "I guess they came prepared . . . but they didn't come prepared for Death's Mistress.", and then duels the wizard one-on-one in full view of both armies, owns him, and rips out his still beating heart.
• Nicci gets another in the next book, Phantom, where she steps in to repel the Blood Beast. The unstoppable Beast takes on Richard, Zedd, Ann, Nathan, and Cara all at once and turns their attacks away like they're nothing, but then Nicci uses her power of both Additive and Subtractive Magic to essentially create a massive vacuum between the world of life and the underworld, and summons down twin lightning bolts charged with the energies of both worlds to come in through the window and catch the Beast between the full blast of both, blasting the sonuvabitch to cinders. It comes back, but damn if it isn't awesome.
• In Naked Empire, Owen encounters the Imperial commander who forcefully took the woman he loved as a bed slave. The commander, Luchan, tries to intimidate Owen by telling him to "Go scurry back into your hole," a command that had sent Owen simpering and running the first time they met. This time, Owen calmly pulls out his knife and stabs him instead. Not bad for a man who had been an Actual Pacifist less than a month ago.

---