Wolfwood ups the level of awesomeness to gratuitous amounts in volumes 9 and 10 of Trigun Maximum. In order to save the orphans he set out to protect in the first place, he firsts defeats a small army of cyborg mercenaries, then Livio the Doublefang, who was basically stated to be an upgraded version of Wolfwood. He then overpowers the True Chapel only to get attacked by Livio's split personality, Razlo the Trip of Death, who uses three of the giant cross guns. He takes a bit of a beating here, but Vash comes in and stalls them long enough for Wolfwood to get back to his feet. Chapel, not being an idiot, starts shooting Wolfwood, so Wolfwood BITES though two glass vials of super soldier formula, heals as he's being shot, and promptly head-butts Chapel so hard that his neck snaps. As if that wasn't enough, he then defeats Razlo the Trip of death by exploding a freaking chain of bullets around his head after disarming him at close range. Sure he died, but it was just about the best way anyone could possibly good out. Crowning Moment of Awesome indeed!
Vash shoots down a destroyer under Knives' control... IN SPACE.
Anime
Meryl gets one in Episode 4 when she reveals under her cloak a shit ton of derringer pistols and uses them with amazing accuracy to disarm the corrupt sheriff’s goons.
Vash gets another one when he has the sheriff dead to rights. The sheriff pulls the trigger, Vash casually dodges the bullet, which was mere inches from his face and then he pistol whips the sheriff.
Vash would show the above bullet dodging trick in Episode 2, where he easily and quickly dodges his opponents gunfire merely by watching how he moves the gun and times it just right. To add a bit of funny to it after his last shot, Vash merely quips the guy has no marksmanship skill and flicks his nose.
In episode 5, Vash manages to deflect Gofsef Nebraska’s Rocket Fist with five shots, saving a group of innocent people. With his final bullet he disables the arm entirely
Vash ensuring there were no fatalities in a quick draw shooting contest by standing on the sidelines and flicking rocks into the bullets to change their trajectory to a nonfatal one.
Brad: You think that'll make it better? All of you, SHUT UP! This wasn't because of him, it's our fault! We all chose to ignore reality when we knew what would happen someday. We never lifted a finger to help, so we have no right to point one now! We just huddled together, shaking in fear like scared animals. We're still alive, and that's what matters! If we work together, we can build a decent life on this ball of sand!
Nicholas D. Wolfwood shooting a machine gun out of one competitor's hands with one bullet... and lighting said competitor's cigar with the next!
In Vash's final fight with Knives, Knives throws five bullets in the air and then shoots them causing them to explode in unison all over Vash.
A defining moment for Vash, where he is revealed to be something more than just a lucky moron, occurs in the second episode where he stands perfectly still as a gun is leveled at him and fired and then dodges several bullets.
The entire first five episodes are a collective crowning moment. Think about it. Vash never fires a shot for the first four episodes, and easily defuses several extremely dangerous situations. And when he does finally fire his gun, it's a single, quick moment that completely shuts down the enemy's ability to fight back. Those six shots come after the whole town had tried to kill him, he survives an attack by this massive robot thing, reacts by taunting said robot, ignores repeated taunts and attacks until the robot's victims are safe, only then does he fight. And win. Bad. Ass.
"That's him. The Devil's Helper. The man who single handedly reduced an entire city to ashes is standing just over that hill." As the dust clears we see that Vash had indeed survived, clutching a woman in his arms. "Th...that's...No way!"
Wolfwood's gets awesome moments even after he's dead. In the last episode, after Vash and Knives joust with their angel arms, leveling the terrain, Knives manages to get Vash's revolver and activate both angel arms while Vash is helpless and exhausted. With Wolfwood's voice urging him on, he lets his hand fall into the dust beside him... and lifts up Wolfwood's cross machinegun, buried in the dirt, which Knives (and probably the viewer) forgot was there. He shoots at one of the angel arms, causing Knives to lose his grip on both weapons and allowing Vash to make a comeback.
The duel between Vash and Knives is a massive moment for both, and one by the way it was made: an effortless mixture of Gun Kata and sheer creativity. Notably, there's a sequence in which they start ejecting bullets from the others' guns, and with Fearful Symmetry, each try to reload and fire. Damn.
One instance in the anime is when Millie fires her stun gun at Monev. He shrugs it off, but still, she's got ladyballs for attempting it.
Vash's fight with Gasback at the end of Badlands Rumble.
On the subject of Gasback, Gasback pulls off the most unique and extreme heist of the entire series. Throughout the film, a big deal is made about the enormous, gaudy golden statue at the center of town, and everyone assumes that's what Gasmack is after, because a desperado like him had to be after the most valuable thing in the city. Then, Gasback speeds right past it and takes his true objective, the one truly most valuable and irreplaceable thing in the city: The Plant. You know, that gigantic lightbulb thing that makes it possible for there to even be a city in Trigun's desert Death World of a setting. In that moment, Gasback sets himself apart from the common crowd of thieves and desperados that populate the setting, in that instead of stealing a city's treasure, he stole its future.
During the Bar Brawl in Badlands Rumble, one of the mooks pulls a gun, causing everyoneto pull their own... all of which are stripped of their bullets in the span of a few seconds by Vash.
Both
"Total slaughter... total slaughter... I won't leave a single man alive..."
Turns into a Funny Moment when the people he's trying to intimidate just remark on how corny the song is.
Vash has a missile headed straight towards him. His solution: kick that fucker out of the way.
Vash stripping naked and barking like a dog to save someone's life. Hell—sure, he can blow a hole in a moon with his Angel Arm but only a true badass can unashamedly beg to save someone's life.
Then, upon finding the hideout of the men who have been harrassing his adoptive family for the whole chapter, he and Wolfwood proceed to take them all out. It's even better in the manga, though, when Vash and Wolfwood find the Legendary Impostor who's kidnapped Vash's adoptive sister. He tells Vash to drop his gun after some bragging, which Vash does... only for him to pick it up, in midair, and then riddle him with bullets before he can even react.
What adds to that scene in particular is the fact that when Vash first shoots Monev you hear two shots, but see that he's actually put three bullets into Monev's faceplate. The dude is so fast that the initial two shots sounded like one, followed by the third.
