One of my favorites is the Crowning Moment of Awesome,* in which

a fictional character does something for which they will be remembered forever, winning for them the eternal loyalty of fans.

I like this one especially, because if you notice, it doesn’t require any swashing or buckling, no need for witty banter or ultimate pwning of the baddest bad guy in the universe. Even the smallest moments can be filled with awesome — it all depends on the character, and where the moment fits into his or her story. It can happen in a crowd, in a small group, or even on one’s own.

It can come at any time during a story, not just the climactic scene, and can happen with more than one character. When a Forsaken rogue named Tikee arrived at Nox’ fire Barrens to drag Davien back to Undercity for her crimes, every Tauren in attendance barred her way. The moment was completely unplanned — simply one character after another getting up and RP walking their way over to stand between Tikee and my floppy-hatted mage — but it had an epic feel to it.

In-game, there’s Thrall’s return to Outland at the end of the Greatmother questline, or (let’s go old-school for a second, even though the chain is no longer in the game), the march through Stormwind with Marshall Windsor at the end of the Alliance-side Onyxia chain.

Your turn! What are some of your favorite CMoAs, either from WoW lore, or your own RP?

*There are tons and tons of CMoAs on the tropes site. I’ll digress briefly with my favorite one, from The West Wing. The first time I saw this episode, and heard the first notes of “Brothers In Arms” — just the low, low note of the guitar, I got chills. They didn’t stop until well after the credits rolled.

**I stand corrected, by Tarq himself, who needs to get his ass over here and post. <3