Awesome / Tales from the Borderlands

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Zer0 Sum

• It's entirely possible to play Rhys as the classy Badass Bureaucrat Manipulative Bastard he tries being during the prologue if you choose the right alternatives when dealing with Vasquez, Vaughn and Yvette.
  • When Vasquez surprises you with his new position, you can reply "Congratulations on your promotion! Love what you've done with the office! Going for the whole... minimalist thing", showing the ability to save face and keep cool. It's one way you have of mocking Vasquez to his face.
  • After Vasquez ends his call, he asks where he was. You can tell him, in a very soft Deadpan Snarker and bored tone, "You were lecturing me. It was taking a while", treating Vasquez's Character Filibuster with the respect it deserves.
  • Tell Vasquez you quit. It won't change anything, but it's the only alternative where you can tell him where he can shove it in an effective and non-comical way while also avoiding getting punched in the face. Or you can play sneaky and pretend to just accepting becoming janitor, leading Vasquez into a false sense of victory and security. Either way, it's a far better way of ending the conversation, and playing Rhys as a truly cunning and resourceful character.
• The plan to mess up Vasquez' deal requires $10,000,000, cash, which Vasquez is having some difficulty procuring. When Rhys brings this up, Vaughn basically taps his special computer glasses and says "done." He treats the whole thing as about as difficult as taking a quarter from the change slot of a vending machine.
• After coming up with their plan to steal Vasquez' deal for the Vault Key, Vaughn starts arguing with Yvette over what kind of car they should have (he wants something stylish, while she wants to outfit them with something more practical/armored). Rhys settles it by smirking and telling them he already has a car in mind. Cue them stealing Vasquez's car.
  • Punctuated by their landing it on Pandora — accidentally killing a bandit during the drop —, set to the very apropos song, "Busy Earnin'" by Jungle.
• When Rhys and Vaughn are ambushed by Bandits, Rhys quickly summons a Loader Bot to fight them off. Rhys can select between two choices for the primary and secondary weapons: either a Gatling Gun or Riot Shield for the former, and Sticky Grenades or a Rocket Launcher for the latter. And of course, the Loader Bot makes a Dynamic Entry by being launched via Hyperion Moonshot outright crushing one of the bandits on its landing. It's enough to scare the Bandits into silence for several seconds. Then, all hell breaks loose when the Loader Bot goes to town on the Bandits.
  • Better yet, at the end, Rhys is told to combine the Loader Bot's primary and secondary weapons to create a Finishing Move to wipe out the last of the Bandits. Complete with Loader Bot giving a Bond One-Liner everybody had to be thinking after witnessing the attack: "Fatality."
    • MG + Rockets: The Loader Bot goes berserk with its Gun and Launcher, spinning around while spewing lead and explosives with equal measure, annihilating everything in its wake.
    • Shield + Grenades: The Loader Bot slaps all of its Grenades onto its Shield, and grabs Rhys and Vaughn before rocketing up into the air - when he lands, the impact plus the explosion of the Grenades blows all of the Bandits away.
    • MG + Grenades: Jamming the Grenades into the Machine Gun, the Loader Bot uses his newly formed Grenade Launcher to blast all of the Bandits back to the Stone Age.
      Loader Bot: Lo, I am become Death, destroyer of Bandits.
    • Shield + Rockets: The Loader Bot fires its Rockets in the air, and shields Rhys and Vaughn along with itself by holding the Shield over its head. The Bandits only have enough time to look up and see the Rockets falling back down before they impact right on top of them.
• After being temporarily separated from the Loader Bot during the Bandit Ambush, Rhys is forced to make do with his Stun Baton. It packs enough punch to send most Bandits flying when it connects. And when Rhys finds out it isn't able to do the same with a heavily-armored Nomad, he shoves it through the gap in the Nomad's hood. The blood jetting out of the Nomad's face after the attack implies that Rhys blew his goddamn face off!
• Rhys picking up Zer0's fallen sword and disemboweling an alpha skag.
• Vaughn, despite being scared out of his mind throughout the entire episode, handles himself quite well during the chariot race, at one point zooming around a bandit vehicle so he can retrieve the case of money and immediately going for the driver's shotgun, though killing the driver was probably not what he intended to happen.
• Zer0's actions during the episode are one long Moment of Awesome after another. The fact he does this sort of stuff all the time through the game gets Lampshaded. The fact we see it from the perspective of normal people, though, helps elevate him to a Memetic Badass.
• Finding the hidden room in the Atlas warehouse containing a one-of-a-kind (probably Legendary) gun, a one-of-a-kind digital watch, and a Vault map.
• A few instances from the sisters:
  • Fiona has two chances to use her gun in the first episode. During the first, she uses a downed bandit as a springboard, then twists in mid-air to aim at August. If you risk a shot, she shoots the gun right out of his hand. Later in the death race, as Felix picks up the case of money, one option is to shoot him. Fiona is rolling backwards in the caravan as she shoots, but still manages to get him in the neck. Felix lives long enough to open the case, only for it to explode in his face.
  Fiona: Choke on it!
  • Fiona and Vaughn during the death race. While plenty of other vehicles are exploding, Vaughn's able to keep their's going, even while being attacked by an axe-wielding bandit. Fiona has the choice to rescue him, but if she opts to leave him and go for the money, Vaughn will break his motorbike free and drive off. He comes back to help Fiona when she's in trouble, then kills the bandit driving the truck with the money on it. The latter part is done pretty stealthily! Fiona meanwhile has to fight off bandits at various points, potentially killing one with an axe, or kicking him off so he can be finished off by Vaughn. She then does a leap of faith from her doomed vehicle onto the caravan.
  • Sasha gets one when she and Rhys are trying to stealthily take down two guys. While he seriously struggles to deal with his bandit, Sasha breaks her target's neck easily. If Rhys gives her a thumbs up, she'll take a little bow.
  • Sasha gets a few combat scenes too - defending herself and Rhys when he accidentally unleashes skags on them. Then in the arena, if she has the stun baton, she'll swing it at a bandit who's racing towards them on a motorbike. The bandit is flung clear. If she doesn't have the baton, she'll shoot him off instead.

Atlas Mugged

• First off: Athena is going to be in Episode 2.
  • And her appearance in the episode doesn't disappoint at all, as she presents herself as a cross between an Assassin, Captain America, and a Terminator.
• Rhys timing a moonshot from Helios to take down the Rakk Hive chasing the heroes was nothing short of amazing, even if it did end up separating the group.
• 'Hail to the king, baby!'
  • Jack is a horrible person and a monster, but he is a VERY impressive monster. In the last decision of episode 2 you can choose to allow Jack to help you take control of the facility...and then all the drones point their guns to the bad guys.
• Loader Bot is an awesome piece of metal. Big Damn Heroes incarnate.
  • He can save Rhys from Vasquez when he starts to hunt you down.
  • He can also save Fiona and Sasha from Athena...by throwing her away. Yes, Loader Bot can beat player characters.
    • Athena is a badass Vault Hunter who was trained from childhood, nearly took down the Atlas corporation, wiped out thousands of Dahl soldiers and Eridian aliens during Jack's counter-attack against them on Elpis and, being your typical gunslinging Vault Hunter, is pretty much unstoppable. Loader Bot, meanwhile, is your average Hyperion robot you encounter in Borderlands 2. And yet, he still defeats her.
    • The Stranger even notes that normal Loader Bots can't pull off the kind of thing that Loader Bot did. Which is why he and Rhys doubt it actually happened. This becomes Hilarious in Hindsight after The Reveal that the Stranger is Loader Bot, so he knows that Fiona made that bit up.
• Fiona jumping onto Sasha's bike during the escape. Although Rhys calls bullshit, if it happened it's damn impressive for a non-Vault Hunter.
  • The way Fiona can evade Athena without Loader bot is rather impressive as well.
    • She runs along the rooftops, balancing on beams and doing all Assassin's Creed type stuff, even flinging herself and Athena out a window to try and slow the latter down. Midway through their escape, she and Sasha have to fight a bunch of bandits.
• Fiona having the sheer gall and fortitude to steal Athena's hastily discarded shield right in front of her.
  • Cue the *Athena will REALLY remember that*
• Fiona and Sasha's escape from Finch and Kroger in case someone thought they were Damsels In Distress. Fiona shoots Finch with an elemental bullet (bonus points if it's a flame bullet, burning his hair after teasing him about it), then kicks him in the head. Sasha then hits Kroger with the frying pan and the girls run for it.
• It doubles as a goofy moment, but Rhys throwing the shovel at Vasquez's head and hitting the car instead. He might have the odds stacked against him, but Rhys isn't going to passively dig his own grave for an arsehole! Made even better by him hacking the car or the gun a moment later so he and Vaughn can escape.
• Despite the Squickyness of the moment, Fiona sporking General Pollux's eye. Not many people would have the stomach to do it - Sasha and Vaughn certainly didn't. But Fiona did it, and then potentially caught the eye before it could slap Vaughn in the face too.

Catch a Ride

• Jack's rampage and Fiona infiltrating the facility after using her flashbang grenade are equally impressive to see.
  • In the former scenario, Jack condescendingly gives Rhys total control of a single, dinky Atlas drone that can only shock people. Rhys puts it to VERY good use. Also, Jack starts a giant free-for-all gun battle with the drones, with Vaughn fighting Vasquez and August battling Sasha, who is trying to get hold of his Widow Maker.
  "GET READY TO LICK MY BOOTS, YOU RAGING DOUCHEBAGS!"
  • In the latter scenario, Rhys and Fiona end up running into a pair of turrets pinning them down. Rhys suggests she throw her hat to get them to shoot each other. It works. Leading to...
    Fiona: Touchgoal!
• The utterly bogus way Fiona takes out Vallory.
• Athena rescuing the team from Vallory.
• Fiona unlocking her Vault Hunter talent of Awesomeness by Analysis.
• Athena and Fiona vs. Brick and Mordecai. Two Vault Hunters vs. 1.5 Vault Hunters, it's as chaotic and badass as it sounds. NOW you know why the pair were limping away at the beginning of the Pre-Sequel. They lose in the end, but Fiona managing to get some serious hits on Brick in melee and surviving a metal-clad punch to the skull from him is no small achievement.
  • Even better, it's Fiona who does the most damage, as Lillith said: "Damned near killing my two best men."
  • Also, Gunslinger Mordecai is back with a fully upgraded Unforgiven Masher to boot, and he kicks ass.
• Rhys and Sasha chasing August atop a legless, but still incredibly mobile Loader Bot in an effort to save Gortys.
• Picking Vasquez to get the blame for messing up the deal as Fiona is pretty awesome, because it's nice to see the Hyperion executive who is a bigger Jerkass than Jack himself be reduced to the trembling, cowardly bully that he really is.
  • It should also be noted Vallory killing Vasquez is awesome in its own right, as everyone is sick of him. Throughout Act 2 of Episode 2, he makes fun of Rhys and Vaughn, disgusts even Jack, pisses off August and acts condescending and arrogant to everyone. Whether you like it or not, you can agree that he had it coming.
• Vaughn continuing to take his level in badass by jumping on Vallory's back and holding her in a chokehold to give Rhys time to try and save Gortys.
• Rhys, atop Loader Bot and using his eyes to aim, who is also atop a newly be-legged Gortys, running directly towards missiles and batting them out of the way with a branch.
  Gortys: Incoming!
• The ending reveals that the gang are going to Helios! That's right, we'll see it again, 3 years later!
• If you chose the option, Rhys rejecting Jack's offer of friendship by pointing out just how dangerous and psychotic he really is. Even the present day Fiona admires the character that Rhys had displayed.

Escape Plan Bravo

• Rhys' plan subverts the Unspoken Plan Guarantee, and works! ...Mostly. Which is wonderful to see, considering that nothing has gone right for him in the past four episodes.
• When it's revealed Yvette has been working with Vasquez, she grabs Rhysquez's arm. One of his reactions is both Nightmare Fuel and a CMOA by saying that she'll end up like Henderson is pretty awesome, considering how much of a bitch she truly is after learning she backstab Rhys and Vaughn.
  Rhysquez: Sure, sure. So, how many bags do you want, dear?
  Yvette: What?
  Rhysquez: Well, you know what happens to people who cross me. First Henderson, then Rhys. So I'm asking, do you want your body in one big bag or many little ones? There's some with those cute little ties on them.
• Choosing to rule Hyperion with Jack, especially if you are on good terms with him.
  • Considering how Yvette is holding Sasha and Fiona hostage, listening to Jack announce that Rhys is in control is awesome because now Yvette knows just how much trouble she is in.
  • The choice to reject Jack's offer results in a villainous moment of awesome for Jack. He decides that he's had enough, and takes control of Rhys' arm and jacks himself in, even briefly taking over Rhys himself to tell Fiona that everything is fine. The resulting monologue is a moment of awesome for Dameon Clarke, too, who delivers the lines perfectly:
  Jack: OOHHH, I can't believe how long I was stuck inside that empty little head of yours! GOD, it's good to be out! WOO! Well! That shit's done. I'm everywhere in the system now, not to mention my sweet new body!
  Rhys: You're a maniac.
  Jack: (as a projection on the window behind Rhys) No, I am HANDSOME GODDAMN JACK!!
• The myriad of ways that Rhys can reveal that he's still alive to Yvette before he knocks her out like this one. The look on her face as Rhys says hello and sounds genuinely menacing is priceless.
  Rhys: (turns off voice modulator) Hello, Yvette.
  Yvette: Ohhhh shit.
• Rhys defeating Hyperion's entire accounting department, or rather, accountant army, in a gunfight. To be fair, it is a pretend gunfight (and taken very seriously), but it's still pretty damn awesome, especially how everyone involved decided to fight like they were in a standard action movie.
• Though very sad, Scooter did get a suitably awesome death Riding the Bomb. "Catch a ride", indeed. Hell, knowing him it's probably how he's always wanted to go.
• The entire intro sequence, with the wonderful music and incredible visuals, plus the fact that it's a massive homage to sports movies in general.
• Rhys can do the one thing that everyone wanted to do in BL2 — tell Jack that he talks too much for his own good. Best of all, his response actually makes Jack sincerely and seriously apologize, with no sarcasm whatsoever.
  Jack: Whoa whoa whoa...do I seriously talk too much? Rhys...I'm sorry, man. No one has ever told me that before. Thank you-Thanks for your honesty. I-I really appreciate it, man.
• A subtle one when Rhys-quez calls the two male soldiers "ladies", one remarks that the Captain's brother is finally getting married to his boyfriend. #LoveWins indeed.

The Vault Of The Traveller

• One screenshot shows a particularly awesome moment - Janey on her motorbike, Sasha in a technical, August and Kroger in their technical and Zer0 standing on Vasquez's car. Ladies and gentlemen, The Cavalry has arrived!
• The trailer indicates that the canonical choice is to rule Hyperion!
• The final showdown with the Traveler has Rhys piloting Gortys like a Humongous Mecha, with the help of Loader-Bot and the three Vault Hunters you hired for the mission, each of which gives Gortys a different awesome super-move for the fight against the Traveler.
  • Rhys's skill at finger gun wars gives Gortys actual finger guns.
  • Loader Bot gives Gortys his old body's signature move: grabbing the enemy (or in this case, a huge piece of debris) and spinning his torso around in order to toss them "So long, Gay Bowser" style.
    Loader Bot: I missed this.
    Gortys: Hey, me too.
  • Athena and Zer0 do what you'd expect and give Gortys a Kinetic Aspis and access to Decepti0n, respectively.
  • August uses Good Old Fisticuffs and fights like the street-brawling Pandoran gangster that he is, then moves on to Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs and ends with a double Rocket Punch.
  • Janey Springs creates rocket boosters on Gortys' legs and turns her into a Kick Chick, ending with an rocket-powered aerial suplex.
  • Cassius uses digistruct energy beams, finishing with a Kamehame Hadoken.
    Rhys: Do you know any combat maneuvers?
    Cassius : Oh I've been working on a couple. [grins]
  • And Claptrap...well...he causes an excessive amount of missile launchers to appear on Gortys...to the point where they weight her down. Then they all fire in random directions, including straight up...and then they all fall down, which Gortys then has to dodge. Of course, this is the one attack that the Traveller can't dodge. Once again, with Claptrap, you have to work with the failure.
  • To finish the Traveler off, Gortys turns the beacon that summons the Vault and keeps it in place into a BFS and slice the Traveler to pieces.
    • What's even better about this is that unlike the other attacks, the sword is brought out regardless of which Vault Hunters are piloting - which means the sword is all Gortys.
• Rhys ending the legacy of Handsome Jack once and for all, by ripping out all of his own cybernetics and (potentially) crushing his ECHO-eye in his hand as Jack begs for mercy.
  Rhys: I win, Jack. It's over.
  • Let's put this in perspective: Handsome Jack is begging for mercy. He didn't do that when he was killed in Borderlands 2, he was just pissed off that (from his point of view) a filthy unwashed bandit was the one to put him down. Of course, the real Jack might not have been afraid to die because he knew he had an AI backup of himself ready to go, but that doesn't make it any less satisfying.
• Rhys rebuilding Atlas from the ground up and becoming its new CEO is admittedly pretty awesome. It may not be the company he had in mind, but judging from a few passing comments by him it seems to be shaping up well. It's nice to see the guy find the success he had been looking for through the entire series.
  • Vaughn found his own happiness too, stepping out from his friend's shadow and becoming a badass tribal leader who's easily able to stand alongside the others as an equal. Not bad for the mild mannered accountant, refused entry to clubs for being a 'nerd'.
• A Hyperion stooge, his nerdy friend, a Pandoran con-artist, her sister and a Loader Bot, and their small collection of friends, managed to find a Vault, kill the monster inside (larger than any Vault Monster seen prior) and claim the treasure within. That in itself is phenomenal.
• Getting August to turn against his mother, who is a freaking crime lord is awesome, and even more with the massive Blast Out that ensues.
• Fiona using her more developed Action Skill and the lack of gravity to take down several Guardians without taking a single hit (and protecting Sasha from the same) shows how much better skilled she's become between her story and the present.
• Although it's offscreen, August taking out an entire elevator of Hyperion soldiers and then shooting out all the screaming Jack screens shows just how incredibly badass he can be.