Awesome / Black Lagoon

"YEAH! YOU GOT FUCKED!"

Sister Yolanda: Eda! What have I told you about drinking inside the chapel?

Eda: Ah! Sister -

Sister Yolanda: We'll talk later! First things first... we'll deal with these nonbelievers the same way we dealt with the people of Bethshemesh!

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• Revy had already been set up as a maniac Guns Akimbo Dark Action Girl early in Black Lagoon but the moment that clearly established her true level of badassery was when Dutch casually asks her to take on several boats full of heavily armed pirates. By herself. Leaping from one to the other while they're bouncing along at high speed. Rock can only stare in shocked disbelief as she wipes out the entire fleet, finishing off the last one with an airfoil round from an M79 grenade launcher as it tries to get away.
  • Scratch that, Revy herself is awesome. Period.
• Rock himself actually got one or two. One was his deft negotiation with the Church of Violence, netting Lagoon Company the entirety of their requested items and showing that he was just as dangerous as anyone else on the crew, merely in a different way. His second was just a few minutes later, standing up to Revy, verbally tearing her to shreds, and proving that he had more spirit and determination than anyone up to that point had ever given him credit for.
  • Rock got his first Moment of Awesome in the second episode, when he comes up with the plan for torpedoing a battle helicopter mid-air — which is then pulled off, with Rock giving the helicopter the finger with a smile as the Lagoon sails on by. "You got FUCKED!"
    • This sentiment is echoed by Rock's VA, Brad Swaile, who claims this line to be his favorite in the series.
    • This is followed by Dutch's great line: "Amen, Hallelujah, and peanut butter." Both a Crowning Moment of Awesome and a Funny Moment.
    • The line was so awesome that, when the show was aired on Toonami, the line was used in one of the bumpers for the show (which doubles as a Funny Moment).
  • Also, during Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise, when he has the stones to stand up to Balalaika.
    • "There are two things to remember when you're begging for your life; one is to entertain the person who hold the gun, the two is to give them enough reason to be convinced. Now, you don't have fullfiled any of this two yet. Now, dance! What obligation do I have to save you?" "...You're mistaken. It's not an obligation. "Justice" is just means. I only have one reason: It's MY HOBBY." "Hobby?" "Yeah. If some folks enjoying dying in gutter, there also people with hobby like mine. I'm just the same with you."
    • A banter of Breaking Speech.
    • Another one during Fujiyama is when he makes Chaka slip on the floor with cleaning fluid and then proceeds to bash the asshole in the head with a bowling pin.
    Chaka: (dragging Yukio down a flight of stairs) God damn that woman is fuckin' amazing! I never thought I'd get the chance to go one-on-one with her! I'd better prepare the stage if we're gonna do this right! No one-AAAAAAAIIIII (slips and falls on puddle) MOTHER FUCKER! WHO THE HELL SPILLED THIS SHIT!? ...Cleaning fluid?
    Rock: HEY! (Chaka looks up as Rock smashes him over the head with a pin) FUCK YOU!
    • The time he defended himself from Sawyer the Cleaner's three-foot long chainsaw with a metal shelf.
  • Then there's the time he managed to piss Revy off mid-diatribe and, when asked what he wanted on his tombstone, replied very calmly, "There's no cure for a fool with a gun." And then, just as she fires, he shoves the gun out of the way and only gets grazed, showing his words actually had a point.
  • Also in the manga when he comes up with the idea to sink a huge ship using C4 and a harpoon gun.
  • As well as his plan used to stop Roberta's rampage in El Baile de La Muerte. It doesn't go off without a hitch, but Rock manages to manipulate the events of the arc to a degree that Eda is honestly impressed. She even lets him go when Rock reveals he's onto the fact that Chang holds so much power because somebody allows him - impressive, considering what happened to the last guy who was onto something there.
• Roberta, an ex-FARC-agent-turned-maid, is basically the Terminator. But this is cemented when, after having busted out her shotgun umbrella on a group of thugs, she turns to them, curtsies...and lets a dozen or so grenades fall from her petticoats. Outside, the Lagoon crew watch the bar explode. Minutes late, backlit by flames...Roberta emerges, unscathed.
  • It says something where she's not only able to go toe-to-toe with Revy, but win as well.
  • And then there's the crazy chase scene where Roberta manages to overtake the Lagoon company's car, which has to be traveling at upwards of 60-70 MPH, on foot. Before leaping onto the trunk with a trench knife. Again, this is a Terminator reference.
  • The El Baile de La Muerte manga arc shows provides her with several Moments of Awesome, but the cake goes to the time where she completely WRECKS the deadly trio of Shenhua, Sawyer the Cleaner and Rotton the Wizard. It starts when Shenhua goes after Roberta, only to have one of her kukris caught in Roberta's teeth before she SHATTERS IT TO BITS with an absolutely terrifying Slasher Smile. Then Sawyer comes in and tries to chainsaw her, only for the Bloodhound to destroy the chain with her gun barrel, leaving both women utterly petrified (it doesn't help that Roberta is in full bore Mad Dog mode, best shown in the anime where she is snarling like a GOD DAMN WOLF). Rotton comes in and just barely stops her from finishing Shenhua and Sawyer, only to get kicked square in the balls through his groin protector. And just to put the icing on the cake, when little Fabiola tries to make her see reason, she makes the poor girl cringe in fear simply by talking to her about their master in the most dissonantly serene voice. Holy Shit does not even begin to describe it.
    • And just when we thought that was the best (or worst) of her.... watch until she arrives in Golden Triangle. To cut it short, she took out the whole army of Golden Triangle warlords with nothing but a musket and flintlocks. Yes. You read it. MUSKET AND FLINTLOCKS. In MAID DRESS. That Musket & Flintlocks is actually modified & loaded with SABOT rounds, capable of burning through body armor & steel like a hot knife through butter, but that just increase Roberta's awesomeness. HOW'S THAT for improvisation??!!
  • Chapter 15 of the El Baile de La Muerte she fires a Barrett M82 sniper rifle with attached grenade launcher ONE-HANDED. REPEATEDLY?!!!
  • Miss Fabiola Iglesias herself. She may not be on Roberta's level, but when she gets out of being held down by boot-knifing a guy in the balls, then cleaning out the bar in the same manner Roberta did before casually pulling a China Lake grenade launcher out the back of her dress (and even Revy, who generally knows her guns, had to ask "the FUCK is that?!" at this point) and blowing the reinforcements and their .50 caliber machine gun to hell. Not bad considering this was her FIRST real battle.
• Balalaika gets hers when she "deals" with Hansel. Balalaika simply did her Shut Up, Hannibal! to Hansel's Ax-Crazy talk and signaled her sniper to blow his extremities off. And watched him die. "I said 'KNEEL!'"
  • Also, the reaction Balalaika had while Hansel was dying. She didn't express any sympathy for the twins, but... "You don't even understand, do you? ... I'm... feeling a bit tired." Balalaika is a badass for sure, even when she's not actively kicking it.
  • Or when she stops Revy and Roberta from continuing their fight to the death, prompting Dutch to say that the three scariest women on the face of the Earth were in a confrontation and he had no desire to get in the middle of it.
  • Or her confrontation with the leader of the Washimine-gumi. He attacks her; she easily grabs him, tells him — with a smile — that yeah, they could cooperate, but that is for pencil pushers; she just wants to rule. Then she snaps his neck, thus putting any lingering doubts about her evilness to rest.
  Balalaika: ROCK. Translate, and make sure he understands every word. I'm gonna tell you the truth tonight. What I seek is destruction and domination. I don't care about anything else. I'm only interested in how much I can dance in the pit of Hell when it's all over. (Slasher Smile) See ya there one day. (Neck Snap)
• Hansel and Gretel themselves have many moments that would be listed on this page if the awesomeness weren't trumped by the terror aspect. I mean, they're Blood Knights who do in fact, casually and giggling, take out a bar full of people without breaking a sweat, including some of the above-mentioned Balalaika's men (who, you recall, could fight and win World War III), and almost any other pair of people who sound turned on by the idea of everyone coming to kill them would be on this page, not to mention their successful Batman Gambit to divert almost all of the bounty hunters...the fact that they're maybe ten or twelve at the oldest transforms the awesome into freaky, though.
  • There's also them taking on an entire room filled with armed gang members and winning. Shortly afterward, Gretel has a brief gunfight with Mr. Chang, with both of them emerging unharmed (unless you count the deaths of Mr. Chang's men and his car).
  • The small Batman Gambit they used to get away from their pursuers (via bribing two local orphans to dress like them and take their places, using them as decoys and getting them killed instead of themselves) was rather smart, too. If pretty cruel.
• Ginji Matsuzaki. Slicing bullets. Revy was still talking about this, hours later, sounding impressed, and the only reason Jumbo doesn't have more mention is because the mere idea of trying to list every single one of his Crowning Moments would make Your Head Asplode.
  • Of a lesser mention, the head of the Washimine group having the titanium balls to go after Balalaika with nothing but a sword. Yes, he failed, but seeing him trying to go down fighting was quite awesome.
• Revy beating Genji by stopping his katana with her leg, impaling her leg in the process, which gives her the opportunity to get in the finishing blow.
• Revy killing Torch.
  Revy: You're a rocket man, baby!
• Eda gets hers in the manga, when she becomes the first character to really make Mr. Chang lose his cool.
  Eda: "Don't underestimate my organization, street trash!"
  • Up to this point, it's been hinted that Eda is working as an undercover CIA agent. Chang has just gotten through telling Eda that his organization are neither allies or lapdogs of the American government, and that the only reason he's working with them is to get something in return. Eda turns it around instantly, by reminding Chang that, not only does she not represent a "holier-than-thou" mentality, but that all of the agencies like hers and the states themselves collectively are the United States; a hydra. To top it, Eda reminds Chang that, where he can bring gangs and companies to heel, Eda has the ability to bring entire nations to ruin. Not only is it awesome because it puts Chang in his place, it also shows who the truly dangerous people are in Black Lagoon.
• It's combined with Mood Whiplash and Funny but let's hear it for Rotton, distracting Roberta long enough that she DOESN'T shoot Shenhua and Sawyer to death.
  • Despite his foolishness and idealism, he's competent enough and is so far the only character who indulges in protection like bullet-proof vests, and sports cups; he may as well be an ordinary Red Shirt if he isn't clever.
• In the omake where everyone's telling ghost stories Rock's story was the one that scared everyone. Including Hansel and Gretel. It also frightened Balalaika so much that she asks Boris to accompany her to the bathroom.
• Major Caxton's first scene in Roberta's Blood Trail: during the fighting in Vietnam, Caxton got between his unit and a little girl they wanted to rape. Guns are drawn, and fired. Caxton appears in the story afterwards, the men of his unit do not.
• The Gray Foxes deserve a spot here for not only surviving all Roanapur could throw at them and more, but also being the only thing in the series, more precisely in the OVA (in the manga this was not the case) to hurt Roberta in a significant fashion.
• While Chang can easily out-Guns Akimbo Revy (with infinitely more style), the real reason his spot here's overdue is because he manages to keep the peace between the other crime heads. (Read: the Columbians forcing and bungling their own agenda, the Italians who apparently have a tradition of antagonizing everyone else, and Balalaika.) Without him playing the role of Only Sane Man, there's a good chance a typical meeting between the bosses of Roanapur would end up sparking World War III.
• Revy reminds everyone she's more than just The Gunslinger when she takes out a gunman with a belt fed machine gun by throwing a tank of coke syrup at him and shooting it, completely dousing him and his gun. Over the next several minutes she dodges his gunfire until the syrup caramelizes from the heat and gums up his gun, before leading him to a dead end hallway with an elevator. Finally, she drops to her knees as the elevator opens and the entire police force inside opens fire on him.
  • After the gunman and his brother put up a decent fight for a couple chapters each, their third brother (a Cold Sniper) will surely give Rock and Revy some trouble right? Nope. As the man lines up his shot on them, Rock reveals he's already taken care of things as he looks right at the sniper. To top it off, Rock even does a Finger Gun gesture at the man, giving him just enough time to realize something's wrong before Eda, who has casually strolled up completely unnoticed behind him (with a huge, shit-eating grin on her face, while carrying a baseball bat over her shoulder and listening to "Wild Thing" on her walkman), knocks him off the roof with a batter swing to his head.
• In Chapter 100, Feng finally gets back at Jane for fucking her over at the start of the arc by transferring a large amount of money to her account from an anonymous source then tips off Scotland Yard. All of Jane's associates on a hacker forum demand an explanation and when she can't give one, Jane is told either she lies low somewhere off the grid until the heat dies down or she's blacklisted from the forum.

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