Awesome / Borderlands 2

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

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Remember The Destroyer? It's not gonna be that easy this time.

• The Come Get Me trailer. Sums up the game nicely. The following line is a Call-Back at Helena Pierce's line in the early trailer for the first game too.
  Jack: Do you have ANY idea how much firepower you need to take me down? A LOT.
  (Several guns locked and loaded in a rapid sequence as he says the next line)
  Jack: A whole Goddamn LOT!
  • The Launch trailer also shows us how awesome our new vault hunters are, against the army of Handsome Jack's mercs after the train crash from the opening, and that some familiar faces from the previous game have their backs. Special mention goes to Lilith tag-teaming with Maya to wipe the floor with a whole platoon of them before blowing them up and bumping fists, mouthing "boom". Total badasses. Unfortunately, this didn't appear in-game.
• In Mr. Torgue's Reddit AMA, a talented Redditor made this◊.
• An actual official Bunkers and Badasses roleplaying guide will be released, which will include the paper version of the DLC that started it and its sequel.

Vault Hunters

• Axton's ECHO's first presents him being captured and interrogated by bandits that he was hunting down. Jack doesn't sound too impressed, until Axton tells the bandits that he was paid in advance for the bounty on their heads and tells them that the money is a briefcase near them. One of the bandits opens it up, and what they find instead of money is the Sabre Turret. Cue sounds of gunshots and Axton sounding pleased with himself.
  Axton: That was too easy.
• Maya's third and final ECHOs. Brother Sophis reveals his true colors as a corrupt cultist and intends to use her to rule over Athenas, starting with having her execute a man for not paying him his tithe. Maya literally decides "Ah to hell with it", Phaselocks Sophis and gives his just desserts.
  Sophis: What are you doing child? Put me down! Put me down child, now!
  Maya: 27 years. For 27 years you've been using me to keep these people frightened, haven't you!?
  Sophis: YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND-!
  Maya: SHUT UP! You didn't want me to protect this planet; You wanted me to keep it scared! Keep me locked up so people would do what you asked! Nobody is gonna disobey the order if they gotta face the wrath of a Siren, is that it!?
  Sophis: YOU. KNOW. NOTHING! Child you have so much left to learn! You don't-! (BANG)
  Maya: Don't. call me. child.
• Pretty much any time Salvador is Gunzerking, especially when you invest in Come At Me Bro!:
  Salvador: C'MON! HIT ME, I DARE YOU!
  • Fistful of Hurt, for anyone who just loves to uppercut people. It's powerful enough to one shot standard mooks and knock back Elite Mooks like the super strong Goliaths. Getting a critical with it may have even to blow them apart.
• Quite a few of Zer0's Haiku are awesome to quote.
  And I disappear/ A ghost amidst the combat/Preparing to strike.
  How hilarious/ You've just set off my trap card/ Your death approaches.
  I am eternal / Death will never capture me / My skills exceed his.
  • Imagine being a ghost, watching and dancing around your prey as they futilely attack a hologram of you. All while you prepare to strike them down in one hit. That's what using "Decepti0n" is like.
  • "Many must fall". Know you can one shot bandits and such after using "Decepti0n"? Killing one with a melee attack sets off another "Decepti0n", allowing you to continue picking off your enemies one after another without them seeing you or realizing what's going on. Just like a ghost amidst the combat.
• In "A Meat Bicycle Built for Two", Krieg saves Maya and makes one of the Rats faint simply by screaming at him.
  "I'M GONNA PUT MY PAIN INTO YOUR SOUL!"
  • Good!Krieg managing to convince Insane!Krieg to help in the first place.
  Krieg: "TURN AROUND, PRETTY LADY!!" (Caves buzzaxe into a Rat's skull)
  • How good does it feel to play as Krieg in general? Psychos of various flavors are some of the more annoying enemies to deal with for many players, and most of the skills in Krieg's arsenal basically give you all of the tools that Psychos use against you. You can split heads with a buzz-axe, throw it, chase people with lit dynamite under your arm, strap dynamite to the axe before throwing it and even breathe fire. The class is built around delivering catharsis for having to put up with Badass Psychos and Suicide Psychos on all of your other playthroughs.
    • A small one for Sane!Krieg. He states to his Psycho side in no uncertain terms that if he ever hurts an innocent, he will wrest control away from Psycho!Krieg and commit suicide. Surprisingly, Psycho!Krieg listens.
  • Not only that, he seems to have decided that's how he wants to die. When going into Fight for Your Life he may sometimes scream "Nobody kills me but ME!"
• From Gaige's third ECHOcast, her father's response to finding out that Rich Bitch Marcy ripped off Gaige's DT-Bot and sold it to the (extremely corrupt) police force: "you're gonna take that bitch down, right?"
  • Also in that ECHO-cast, kinda fridge awesome: Gaige, an 18-year-old girl, managed to build a robotic arm strong enough to smash through concrete, in one night, with one arm and only the spare parts lying around her backyard shed. Iron Man, eat your heart out.
    • Not to mention she deliberately cut her arm off so she could install the robotic one! And it's implied that she did this BEFORE actually making the cybernetic one.
  • Another for her father, after Deathtrap accidentally kills Marcy and Gaige is about to be arrested, he creates a distraction involving a golf cart and lots of gasoline for her so she can get off-planet.
  • Really, experiencing the entire game as Gaige is a Moment of Awesome unto itself. Pandora is one of the most hellish, most hopeless and indisputably one of the deadliest planets in all of fiction, where men and women far more experienced than her get torn to bits trying to fight off the planet's many natural threats. Most teens her age would be lucky to last a week here, but Gaige is just too hardcore to lay down and die to Pandora's many natural threats. This level of pure, unadulterated kid power is taken to it's zenith when you kill the Warrior like a badass and humiliate Jack in doing so, as the single-most powerful individual in arguably the entire galaxy was brought to their knees by somebody who's likely still learning how to drive. Awesome.
  • Landing a hit while having 400 Anarchy stacks. You'll miss a lot but when you do connect it is awesome.
  "God help you all if I actually hit something!"
  • Or hell, investing in "Close Enough", which gives up to a 50% chance for misses to ricochet and hit the target anyway. ESPECIALLY with E-Tech weapons that replace the bullets with things like lasers, making it look like you hit exactly what you were aiming at.

Weapons

• Any fan of Westerns can appreciate seeing the Vault Hunters fanning the hammer whenever they're firing a revolver really quickly, especially when they're in epic gun battles on the Bloodshot Dam, in Opportunity, at Sawtooth Cauldron, or, better still, battling Nisha in Lynchwood. It's a simple detail, but it's nice, considering how all the games are basically classic Westerns IN SPACE! that meet Nineteen Eighty-Four, I, Robot and Mad Max all at once.
• The "Effervescent" weapons introduced in the Commander Lilith DLC are all kinds of awesome, but the crown has to go to The Electric Chair. Take the legendary grenade Storm Front (A tesla which launches additional teslas upon detonation) add even more teslas to it plus a HUGE shock explosion that also fires lightning bolts in every direction and you've got a weapon that can clear out a room of same-level enemies in seconds.
• The SWORDSPLOSION!!! gun. It's a gun that launches a sword. The sword then explodes and launches 3 additional swords. That also explode. If it has the "Casual" prefix it fires three swords. They explode. Bam. Then you have nine exploding swords. Because one exploding sword that spawns three more exploding swords just. Isn't. Cool. Enough.
• This is followed up with The Carnage, which fires ROCKETS for Shotgun Ammo, and if you're lucky enough to be graced with a "Casual" prefix Carnage, firing three rockets at once when you pull the trigger. It's also a nice throwback to the Carnage line from the original Borderlands, and has a pretty cool paint job to boot.
• "Out of Body Experience" gives you the option of turning the murderous Loader AI core into a shotgun (or a shield). He wanted to help you kill people after all. He also talks! "Good decision", indeed.

Story

• The opening. A scene with the four new vault hunters showing all their skills, backed by "Short Change Hero" by The Heavy.
  • Bonus points go to Zer0, who kills two Hyperion soldiers in what is arguably the most badass impalement ever. After tricking one Engineer into punching his hologram, he runs the other through from behind with a katana, does a flying somersault off of his (still standing) body, and kicks off the first Engineer, sending him flying right into the blade, chest first. Cutscene Power to the Max, sure, but undeniably epic.
• Fighting alongside Roland after rescuing him from either the Bloodshot Ramparts or the Friendship Gulag can be pretty awesome for a former Roland player, especially when the Scorpio came out, and Roland was kind enough to spec into Aid Station and Stockpile for you.
  • Heck, fighting alongside any of the previous Vault Hunters can be like this.
• Lilith levitating, then teleporting Sanctuary.
  Handsome Jack: That's the best you got, A flying city? What do you chumps have that could POSSIBLY make you think you've got a chance against me?
  Roland: A Siren.
  Lilith: 'Sup.
  [FWOOMPWSSSSHHH]
  • Scooter puts it best as Sanctuary takes off.
    Scooter: Man, this is one of them moments! CATCH A RIIIIIIIIIIDE!
  • What makes this even more epic is how he says said catch phrase. Normally he says it in a slightly whiny tone befitting one of the series Butt-Monkey's but after the above moment he practically roars it.
• Taking on Terramorphous. Even if you don't win (which is very likely), just fighting him with three friends and not passing out at the sight of him makes you feel ridiculously awesome.
• On your way back to Sanctuary after Bloodwing's death, you get attacked be an army of high level Hyperion robots. Just as you ready your favourite gun, you hear Mordecai tell you to get down... who then proceeds to unleash a truly massive attack, effortlessly wiping them all out with exploding slag Cobra shots.
  Mordecai: DIE ASSHOLES!! SCREW YOU! SCREW YOU!! VETE AL DIABLO, YOU SONS OF BITCHES!!!
  • Then, whenever you come back, he keeps on doing it.
• Handsome Jack is a smug asshole the entire game, and pretty much any setback he has he just shrugs off. Opportunity is the first level in which you really get to piss him off.
  • Who's the first person to REALLY make him lose his shit? Moxxi, by sending you on a mission to flood the construction site of part of his Opportunity. Seeing him finally break out of his facade and genuinely angry is SUCH a cathartic moment.
    Handsome Jack: AAAAAARGH!! MY CONSTRUCTION SITE!! MOXXI, YOU BITCH!!!
    Moxxi: Hahaha! I haven't heard him that mad since i kicked his plastic face to the curve!
  • He reacts similarly to you destroying all of his statues in the city. Especially when he acts like you're only mildly irritating him "for eight seconds" but then starts screaming in rage and promising to make a bunch of statues consisting of him kicking you in the junk. This, along with Moxxi's sidequest, is one of the first times you actually manage to get under Jack's skin. Oh, and who gave you that mission, and got the idea in the first place? Claptrap!
    Jack: You. Are such. A Jackass.
    Claptrap: Success! Opportunity is now temporarily free of Jack statues! FOREVER!!!
• Follow all of the Slab King's advice during Toil and Trouble to feel like a real badass, fighting your way to an elevator through a canyon of bandits, blowing up a bandit leader's ride in a explosion you Unflinching Walk away from, beating down multiple buzzards and stealing the Sawteeth clan's explosives before finally jumping off of their tower in the sky and landing in the middle of a group of likely respawned enemies.
  Slab King: Slab, did you- did you just jump off the vultures nest!? God-damn you make me proud!
• The "Animal Liberation" mission. Few things are more satisfying than having a stalker, one of the most lethal and aggravating enemies in the game, fighting on your side.
• Attacking a Hyperion base to reach the bunker holding Angel head on can be considered this as you are pretty much storming one of Jack's most protected bases with the help of Brick's bandits. And from the same mission taking down the BNK3R.
• Angel's last words:
  "Dad, there's something I've got to tell you... You're an asshole."
• Claptrap, of all people, screaming that he will Teabag Jack's corpse during Talon of the Gods. For the duration he actually drops much of his cowardice and is only stopped by the fact that he can't climb stairs.
• Fighting a skyscraper-sized Eridian demigod, in a Battle Amongst the Flames, with your humble primary weapon and killing it before it could even escape its own Vault. And this is after fighting Jack himself and pretty much the remaining forces of his entire private army.
• Hero's Pass, the final area of the game before the one leading to Handsome Jack himself. You're not fighting hapless Hyperion engineers using their tools as makeshift weapons, you're fighting the peak of Hyperion's might: trained soldiers armed with turrets, invisibility tech, powerful sniper rifles and launchers all ready to ruin your day. That isn't enough? Don't worry, the toughest variations of Loaders will be waiting for you well. You'll have to prove you're worthy of fighting Handsome Jack by surviving Hero's Pass.
• Killing Handsome Jack. After all the shit this homicidal corporate dictator puts you through, you get to enjoy him pitifully giving one last desperate Motive Rant after you defeat the Warrior. And it's not a cutscene death either. You get to pull the trigger on Space Mussolini yourself, with whatever gun you want, at any point during his speech. Thank you, Gearbox.
  • Allowing Lilith to kill him instead is just as satisfying, considering everything the original four Vault Hunters have been through.
    Lilith: (utilises her Siren powers to kill Jack) That was for Roland, asshole.
  • The only thing that's anywhere near as awesome is playing as Maya and using your own Siren powers to do so.
  • What's better than using a gun or a Hyperion firearm? How about ramming a salvo of kunai into his chest if you're playing as Zer0?
  • Alternatively, using the Scorpio assault rifle you receive from the quest where you inform Sanctuary's residents of Roland's demise to do the deed. The curious fire rate causes it to sound like an army salute drum snare, making your revenge all the sweeter and all the more symbolic. Especially if you're playing as Axton, and using it to kill Jack is like taking up Roland's sword.
  • Or the comedy of shutting him up with Gaige's melee, and hitting him on the head with a toolhammer.
  • Wanna make it a CMoH? Use a gun that Michael Mamaril gave you if you still have it. Or one of the guns the residents of Sanctuary gave you!
  • Playing as Axton? Unleash your turret, or toss a grenade/fire your launcher, then turn around.
  • Salvador? TWO GUNS, BITCH!
  • Also for Salvador, spec'ing into the Brawn skill tree for the Fistful Of Hurt power, allowing for Sal to deliver the most devastating uppercut in the world, right into Handsome Jack's face!
  • Oh, and flipping him off first!
  • Being Krieg in this situation is especially fun because all the things Jack says about you, that you're a murderer, a bandit, a psychopath, are all true. The knowledge that you're all these things and more and STILL more righteous than him makes it so satisfying to land that buzz-axe into his soft face. Better yet, if he hadn't ordered those experiments on ya, you wouldn't be the badass standing there about to kill him. Bonus points if you use your buzz axe, which is just like the one that his grandmother had used to discipline him as a child. Because nothing says revenge quite like forcing your enemy to relive childhood trauma while you kill them.
  • And of course, just the simple, basic melee attack. Nothing like an anti-climatic end for a over-the-top Smug Snake with A God Am I delusions, delivered by a quick downward swing from a tomahawk, or a quick energy-infused punch, or a hit from a brass knuckle, a slash from a katana, a tap from a tool hammer or a buzz axe to the face.
  • Exploding round sniper rifle shot to the mask, anyone? This is for what you did to Bloodwing, you sunnuvabitch!
  • Or the Morningstar. Nothing says Irony like killing the guy with a gun his company sent you to make you feel bad.
  • Heck, there's also doing so with the Basic Repeater, the very first gun you get in the game. After all the adventures you went through, hoops you leapt through, badasses you killed (including the skyscraper-sized monster you just fought, possibly with a gun that shoots lightning to boot), you look back on it all, including the moment you got that humble pistol, and get like "Heh". Thanks, Claptrap.
  • Whip out the Law revolver or any other gun with a bayonet, and happily stab him.
  • Or you could just take out Moxxi's Hyperion shotgun and blast him in the groin with it. Moxxi sends her regards, asshat! Oh, and it gets better-you killed him with a Hyperion weapon and a Groin Attack!
  • And if you want to give him the most agonizing death possible-get the SWORDSPLOSION!
  • Or, you could literally execute him with Zer0's Executi0n.
  • OR, you could shoot him in the back, as a nice Call-Back to the moment where he stopped being a rational man and slowly transformed into Pandora's very own Big Brother.
  • If you want a truly canon death, just shoot him in the abdomen/sternum, which he's covering with his hands. He'll land flat on his back and you can get to see his face properly.
  • If playing a Gaige, you can use "Shock and Arrrrghh" (which makes you emit an electrical shock every time you reload), and kill him just by reloading.
  • Wanna really add some salt to the wound? Carry out Claptrap's will and Teabag Jacks' corpse.
  • The point is: It's awesome and satisfying no matter how you do it, because the very people he said were dirt are making Pandora a better place.
• The intro to Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon's Keep has crowners for not only Brick, who tears his way through a heavily-fortified Hyperion base singlehandedly (and pumped up with will-weakening drugs), but for Tina. PARTICULARLY for Tina, considering how she manages to pull it off: by turning the drugs to her advantage, convincing Brick that he's an all-powerful Siren and giving him the strength to fight back.
• One sidequest in Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon's Keep involves you hunting down a psychopathic little bastard prince named Jeffery and slapping the shit out of him.
• The ending to Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, where who else saves the day but Bloodwing!
• Remember Mr. Torgue's line about treating women with respect? In Dragon's Keep, an NPC calls Moxxi a bitch.
  Mr. Torgue: THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE! CHASE HIM DOWN AND PUNCH HIM SO HARD HE EXPLODES!
• The Crystalisk's Cynicism Catalyst story crosses with Tear Jerker, Heartwarming Moment and this. A security team led by an Officer Booth goes into the caverns and discovers the Crystalisks for the first time, befriending a rather large one that she named "Blue" out of his crystal colour. After her supervisor, a woman by the name of Harchek proceeds to order her murder after she speaks out against her mining the Crystalisks, Blue isn't too happy about that and goes apeshit on the mining team along with the others and by the sounds of it, killing the entire expedition, including Harchek, by himself.
• In the Commander Lilith DLC, one side mission has you honor Scooter's last wishes. What do you do at the end of this quest? You pull a sick-ass jump over his impact site/memorial via a ramp that is decorated with your choice of either electricity or fire while Scooter's recording yells his Catchphrase. Scooter would be proud.
• The climax of the Commander Lilith DLC has you fighting to retake Sanctuary. And once again Lilith is fighting by your side, flying over the battlefield and blasting the mooks that Hector spawns. Only one problem: Defeating Hector leads to The Reveal that it's too late to stop him, as his vines have spread all throughout the city and he is about to release his spores all across Pandora. So what do our heroes do? Lilith creates a field to contain Hector's spores, before letting loose a massive surge of power to disintegrate Hector and Sanctuary.
  • And how does she get the power to do this? Why only the biggest stockpile of Eridium in Sanctuary of course. Crazy Earl's house.