History Awesome / MiddleEarthShadowOfWar

** In a similar vein, the Army of the Dead side quest features several of your most hated dead enemy captains being resurrected by Zog to guard his stronghold. It's a kind of CreepyAwesome to have to deal with your worst foes one last time, but on a meta note, credit must be given to the devs as well: as this is the final quest of the Carnán quest line, you've probably killed dozens or even hundreds of captains at this point, and you probably thought that you forgot the earlier ones, but this quest shows that you ''clearly haven't''.

*** On a meta note, prior to the Desolation of Mordor patch that enabled overlord bodyguards, this was the only overlord fight in the entire game that involved multiple enemy captains. And Eltariel handles them like a boss.[[note]]On the other hand, there are no enemy grunts in the area. Since Eltariel doesn't drain orcs, they'd only serve to make the battle that much tougher.[[/note]]

[[/folder]]
[[folder:Meta]]
* The confirmation that Monolith ''actually listened''. In April 2nd 2018, they posted [[https://community.wbgames.com/t5/Official-Announcements/Important-Free-Updates-Coming-to-Shadow-of-War/m-p/1831034#M762 a message]] that tells us just what they've got planned for the game, and it includes removal of the marketplace, improvements to the final act of the game, several skins, and more ways to use [[MoneyForNothing mirian and gems]].

** It's especially satisfying when Forthog kills an Uruk with the "No Chance" trait. In other words, you don't have a bodyguard in waiting, there are no Gondorians, and your mission is about to fail because there's no way to counter the death blow -- and in comes Forthog to rescue you. It's UpToEleven when '''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNbF3DkehSQ he does it against an Overlord]]'''. Yes, ''he'' slays the Overlord, and doesn't stick around to claim the fort.

** Even at the start of the game, before Baranor's even picked up any augments, his [[SuperWristGadget Númenórean gauntlet]] makes him an ''incredibly'' slippery target when properly used. The [[GrapplingHookPistol grapple]] can instantly zip him out of sticky situations, while the kite allows him to set up stealth attacks from anywhere. In short, Baranor's what a stealthy Talion player ''wishes'' he could be; sure, he's a GlassCannon, but [[FragileSpeedster his ridiculous mobility means that it's nearly impossible to land a hit on him]]. There's nothing like infiltrating an outpost with absolutely no augments or bodyguards to your name, setting off the alarm, fighting off the entire outpost singlehandedly while picking up augments and ammo refills from treasure orcs and Ologs who randomly spawned amidst the angry garrison, defeating two or three captains, and finally leaving the outpost only ''after'' you're weighed down with Coin and you've decided that you've nabbed all the good loot that the outpost has to offer. [[UpToEleven Oh, and you're playing on Gravewalker difficulty with the mithril augment equipped, so you have no Last Chances and no health packs, and any misstep could be your last.]]

* The official story trailer, just every bit of it is made of pure awesomeness. It features among other things the revelation that [[spoiler: the narrator of past trailers is none other than Shelob herself in human form, and she will take the ring from Talion and the Wraith at some point in the story]].

* None other than [[spoiler:Gollum]] saves Talion from being squished by an Olog. Yes, [[spoiler:Gollum]].
* The ''Arena'' mission during the siege of Minas Ithil is chock-full of awesome moments. A messenger from the Witch-king declares that the Orcs have [[HostageSituation captured]] [[spoiler:Castamir, Minas Ithil's commanding general]], and that they will kill him unless Talion [[CombatByChampion faces the Witch-king's champion in single combat in the city's arena]]. Fully aware that the Witch-king [[ILied has no intention of keeping his end of the bargain]], [[ActionGirl Idril]] and Captain Baranor devise a different strategy; while Talion [[PrivacyByDistraction keeps the attention of the Orcs on the arena]], they can sneak into the camp and [[spoiler:rescue Castamir]], and Talion agrees. After cutting down an Olog champion fairly easily, Celebrimbor notes that they need to buy more time for the Gondorians, so Talion [[IShallTauntYou gets their attention]].

* At the end of Act 1, [[spoiler: Minas Ithil has fallen, Idril's father is dead, and the Witch-king has departed, leaving the remaining Nazgûl behind to finish Talion and Idril off. Talion and Celebrimbor manage to fight off and banish every single one of them! Not even Shelob is able to manage this when they attack her later, and she has the New Ring in her grasp.]]
* [[spoiler:Eltariel's]] entrance: it's the DarkestHour, Minas Ithil has fallen, Talion's about to be transformed into a Ringwraith by the Witch-king -- and [[spoiler:she leaps into the fray from out of nowhere, cuts off the Witch-king's hand, and singlehandedly saves Talion.]]

** For the second mission, Tar Goroth once again tricks his enemies by swooping in after they reach the end of his tracks, forcing Talion to flee on Caragor-Carnán's back while he's hot on their trail. Talion ends up isolated on a large sheet of ice, and it seems he's helpless against Tar Goroth until Carnán swoops in in the form of a Drake. The three then proceed to clash with the corrupted Maia, breaking away the ice he stands on, until [[spoiler: Carnán slams into Tar Goroth, pushing the two of them into the depths and sealing him once more.]] [[spoiler: It would have been an outstanding HeroicSacrifice if it didn't just inconvenience Carnán.]]

** [[spoiler: Talion's speeches aren't bad either: "We are the power in Mordor, and [[PunctuatedForEmphasis we. Are. FOREVER!]]"]]

* A ''very'' dark Crowning Moment of Awesome, [[spoiler: for ''Sauron''. Upon being cornered by Celebrimbor and Eltariel, and on the verge of being ''dominated'' Sauron gives a venomous DeathGlare, [[DefiantToTheEnd slashes at him]] and ''cuts off'' Celebrimbor's Ring of Power (which ''mirrors'' scene for scene [[CallBack Isildur's stand against Sauron]]) and ends with Sauron using his shadows to ''consume'' the traitor.]]

* [[spoiler: In its own tragic way, Talion proving Celebrimbor wrong by showing he is much more than some vessel. How? By fighting off the Witch-king and conquering Minas Morgul for himself!]]

* Act IV "Shadow Wars" is the epitome of HeroicResolve: [[spoiler:Following Sauron's victory against Celebrimbor, Talion has become a Ringwraith himself after talking Isildur's ring. But instead of joining Sauron what does he do? He forms a resistance against Sauron's armies, fending off his counter-offensive in order to keep his armies divided as long as possible to prevent the Dark Lord from uniting it and invading Middle-earth when it's least prepared. And Talion does this for at least ''a few decades.'' Even though he still falls at the end and joins the Ringwraiths, he single-handedly defended Middle-Earth from inside Mordor]].

* A bit of Fridge Awesome: Talion is the only [[spoiler:bearer of one of the Nine that wasn't royalty]].

* ''The Bright Lord'' (the quest) is just awesome from beginning to end, but the first part deserves special mention for this simple bit of GameplayAndStoryIntegration: [[BackForTheFinale leading an army of your most loyal followers from across all regions, against an army of your most hated enemies from across all regions]]. It really hammers in the reality that this is ''the'' GrandFinale of the story, and BigBadassBattleSequence doesn't even begin to describe it. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, things go downhill after winning that battle, but while decidedly more tragic in tone, the ensuing boss fights are no less epic.]]
** In a similar vein, the Army of the Dead side quest features [[spoiler:several of your most hated dead enemy captains being resurrected by Zog to guard his stronghold. It's a kind of CreepyAwesome to have to deal with your worst foes one last time, but on a meta note, credit must be given to the devs as well: as this is the final quest of the Carnán quest line, you've probably killed dozens or even hundreds of captains at this point, and you probably thought that you forgot the earlier ones, but this quest shows that you ''clearly haven't'']].

** Seregost: [[spoiler:Eltariel and Maku disable an entire fortress before engaging the overlord and coming out on top. Bonus points for the unexpected backup by [[FriendlySniper Ogg]] and [[ThoseTwoGuys Flint and Tinder]].]]
*** [[spoiler:The fact that Maku possesses a poison that can incapacitate the entire fortress by itself is both awesome and [[NightmareFuel terrifying]].]]
** Núrnen: [[spoiler:Eltariel teams up with Maku again, this time in a precision strike against the local overlord. This is a stealth mission, so there'll be no outside help this time, right? Wrong!]]
*** [[spoiler:As Eltariel reaches the first warchief, [[BoisterousBruiser Ar-Kaius]] [[DynamicEntry knocks the wall down]] and enters the fray, complete with signature flamboyant BadassBoast.]]
--->[[spoiler:'''Ar-Kaius''': What a pathetic wall! I could build a wall that is ten times greater, in half the time!]]
*** [[spoiler:On the roof of the fortress, Eltariel is cornered by another warchief and his bodyguards, and she's on her own since Maku left to "find [his] own way in"...and then who should show up but Ar-Baruk, leading a small force of spiders. [[RiddleForTheAges How did an Olog even make it to the top of the fortress, especially with no one noticing?]] [[RuleOfCool Who cares?]]]]
** Gorgoroth: [[spoiler:Even a relatively straightforward siege mission becomes a case of MundaneMadeAwesome since Eltariel is commanding the attacking army. Again, she's an assassin, not a commander. If that weren't awesome enough, one of her assault leaders is none other than ''Nazgûl!Talion'' (who seems to be rather enjoying the change of pace and marching under someone else's banner rather than his own). Then Eltariel sounds the charge, and Talion rushes in at the head of the army...]]
*** Over the course of the siege, Flak "Flint" gets taken hostage by an enemy Captain, who demands that the attackers retreat or else he will kill him. How does Flint get out of this one? [[spoiler:He doesn't. He pulls a ''fucking'' '''[[MadBomber bomb]]''' and [[TakingYouWithMe takes his enemy down with him]]. Even though Eltariel herself doesn't react to it, he definitely [[DyingMomentOfAwesome goes out like a badass]]]].

*** [[spoiler:The overlord fight. To wit: [[CoolVsAwesome Two Nazgûl. Versus ]]''[[CoolVsAwesome a veteran Nazgûl hunter.]]'']]
*** [[spoiler:On a meta note, prior to the Desolation of Mordor patch that enabled overlord bodyguards, this was the only overlord fight in the entire game that involved multiple enemy captains. And Eltariel handles them like a boss.[[note]]On the other hand, there are no enemy grunts in the area. Since Eltariel doesn't drain orcs, they'd only serve to make the battle that much tougher.[[/note]]]]

* The final boss fight against [[spoiler:Talion. Talion resurrects nearby orcs to aid him, and eventually other Nazgûl arrive to help him; Eltariel defeats them all. Talion himself is fairly powerful, shows off many moves he has in the main game, and his Nazgûl-voice finally broke and is just as deep as the others.]]

* The absolutely [[LargeHam hamtastic]] intro to [[GuileHero Serka]] which established very quickly the type of man [[spoiler: Baranor's brother grew up to be]].
* In his first scene on reintroduction, [[spoiler:Torvin]] does something that is literally impossible to do for any other character in the game: kill a were-wyrm.
* After successfully raiding an uruk caravan, Baranor shows hints of the tactical savvy of his [[spoiler:brother]] by coming up with an ingenious plan that will both allow them to raid the caravan and cut off Serka's convenient money supply. Knowing of the were-wyrms' attraction to grog, Baranor spills numerous barrels of the bitter drink, calling out a massive wyrm known as "The Rumbler" which is so huge that it causes a cave-in at the entrance of the cavern. With Serka's constant money supply no longer available the mercenary leader, he has no choice but to join up with Baranor's plan. [[spoiler:Just a way of showing that despite their many differences, both of the Haradrim brothers have a solid head on their shoulders, even if it is a devious one]].