Awesome / Degrassi: The Next Generation

• Snake, in the series premiere, telling Emma's Internet stalker that if he moves, he will break his neck after the latter lured Emma to a hotel room and tried to hurt her. Add to the fact that him and Spike hadn’t even started dating yet, him being that protective over Emma is especially sweet.
  • Also in the premiere, as soon as Emma knows her mom and Snake are there, she bites the stalker and vaults out of the room before he has a chance to react.
• Emma is usually such an irritating Karma Houdini that is rarely even called out on her actions, that anytime she is confronted it becomes this. Case in point, one early episode has her spreading a rumor about Liberty and Coach Armstrong being otherwise engaged due to them being seen going into a classroom together afterschool. Turns out, she had a learning disability and he was tutoring her to get past it, but this only came out after she had her reputation brought down for a while (and more seriously, he could have very much been fired, charged and blackballed from ever teaching again). When Liberty confronts her in the restroom after learning she was the source, she gives her a glorious "The Reason You Suck" Speech, saying how she needs to stick with being so concerned about the environment and animals because "when it comes to people, you suck at it!" If only she knew how right she was there...
• Paige scaring away her rapist using the power of rock during season 2's battle of the bands.
• Paige reveals to JT that she was raped. He immediately storms into the gym in the middle of a game going on to attack the guy, while JT's still wearing his goofy mascot costume. Boycott the Caf informs us that clearly "JT" stands for Justice Time.
• In Season 3's "Pride" episode, just after we meet Paige's brother Dylan. Marco is crushing on Dylan in the library. Jay, the school bully says Marco better not drop anything around Dylan "Homochuk," then goes and sits at a table and glares at Dylan. Dylan tosses a book onto the floor beside Jay and stands over him until Jay leaves. It's rare a bully walks away, and Dylan solved it without resorting to violence. Awesome!
• Ashley slapping Craig across the face - onstage, in front of the entire school - after she finds out about his affair with Manny.
• Paige lost the trial against her rapist. He smugly walks away free. She then lets his entire frat know what he did to her, getting him kicked out, then destroys his car. And when he threatens to turn her in, Paige says "Sorry but I'm gonna turn my self in. That's what good people do when they realize they've done something wrong."
  • Also, during the trial. The lawyer is badgering and slut-shaming her, and asks how many partners she's had. Paige stands up to her, rendering her speechless.
    "I'd like to answer that. That was my only experience. And I certainly would not have chosen to lose my virginity upstairs at a house party with a guy I'd known for an hour."
• Emma gets into a fight with Alex who's been making fun of her and her teacher/step-dad Snake having cancer, and manages to make her bleed in episode 3x20.
• Paige, whether or not she was aware of it, potentially saved lives by consoling Rick. Even if he shot Jimmy, he was convinced not to pull a gun on her or her friends. Also doubles as a Heartwarming Moment.
• Caitlin threatening her fellow newscaster who is trying to interview a horrified Craig after Jimmy's been shot by Rick:
  "Here's your story for you. Local insensitive reporter pummeled by famous colleague."
• Marco punches out Linus after being berated with homosexual slurs. Keep in mind that Marco is usually a Magical Queer.
• Spinner tries to make amends with Marco after the former's ex-friend drops a slur against him. Jimmy begins to prevent Spinner from speaking to him, and Spin finally snaps, "Shut up, Jimmy."
• Liberty, after breaking up a fight between Danny and Lucas, finds out why Danny confronted him: He was making fun of JT's death. She immediately becomes an Action Girl and takes over the fight, shoving Lucas into a fence before Spinner intervenes.
• Emma pouring Purple Dragon all over Bruce The Moose when he starts creeping on her.
• Toby rejecting Holly J. (who was in full-on Alpha Bitch mode at the time).
• In the second part of "Chasing Pavements", Anya telling off Owen is particularly cathartic, especially after all of the abuse he put Zane, Riley, and Adam through. And Alli also gets one when she manages to save Principal Simpson's job and earn the students a dance simultaneously.
• Spinner saving Toby from Johnny's gang of bullies in "Death or Glory"; specifically, when Johnny tries to sucker punch him, and Spinner catches his fist in his hand.
• Spinner in "Death or Glory". Angry from his cancer diagnosis, he stands up to the Lakehurst thugs that are making everyone miserable, including repeatedly punching Johnny in the face. A taping of the fight goes viral, and Johnny actually invites him to a second (staged) fight to improve both of their reps.
• As much of a jerk as Owen could be, in "Scream," he shows he does care for Tristan. When Tristan goes missing and he realizes a teammate has his phone, Owen slams the guy against a locker one-handed to demand to know the truth.
  Owen: If you know where my brother is, you better 'fess up or your mouth ends up on the other side of your head."
• Clare in In Your Eyes. After finding out that her ex, KC cheated off of her final exam at Jenna's behest, she cuts them off. It reaches its peak at the end when KC tries to pin the blame on Jenna, but Clare ain't having it.
  Clare: You're pathetic. I don't care about what happened with coach Carson or how hard your semester has been; as soon as things get rough, you blame everyone but yourself.
  KC: I-I just want us to be friends.
  Clare: You don't know what you want. See you in September, KC.
• Seven words: "This is New York Holly J., bitch!"
• Tinsley, Bobby’s girlfriend of all people, has one for standing up to Bobby during Fiona’s trial and timidly telling the truth of what kind of a guy he really is. Without her, Bobby and his vicious bitch of a lawyer would probably have won the lawsuit, and Fiona would have been further vindicated as the crazy person she was not. When Fiona thanks her, she appears to show a bit of small relief herself.
  • Also, Fiona herself is one walking moment of awesome in "Chasing Pavements" for being strong enough to stand trial and deal with her alcoholism simultaneously.
• After Principal Simpson shuts down all clubs that can't get a staff supervisor (which is most of them), along with blocking all social media sights and installing cellphone scramblers in the school, Chantay leads a rebellion. First she leaves an innocent post-it note of "Degrassi Sucks!" in the ladies room, and returns a day later to find dozens of other notes just like lamenting the loss of extracurriculars. This leads her to rallying the clubs together and covering Principal Simpson's car with similar notes, and finally working her way into his office to let him know how badly the changes are effecting students.
  Simpson: Look, I know you're frustrated, but this is no way to send a message.
  Chantay: Then what is, talking to you? I tried that, remember.
  Simpson: I told you, the school needs to mend it's image so we can't be as permissive as we used to be.
  Chantay: So you keep saying, but you never say how that's supposed to work.
  Simpson: This is Degrassi Community School, emphasis on school.
  Chantay: For some of us, the emphasis is on community. So when you take away our clothing and our clubs and our internet? We lose that community. You made all of these changes without talking to any of us about what might actually help. We didn't all bring knives to Vegas Night.
• Jenna faking going into labor to trick Sav into getting a limo ride with Holly J.
• Drew putting his MMA skills to good use and kicking Vince's ass.
  • Later, he also insists that he follow Bianca, who is planning to kill Vince both for Adam and for herself. Katie, without hesitation, goes with him, no matter what the danger.
• Fiona telling Katie and Marisol to shove it after they take her idea for Student Council.
  Katie: I know we got off on the wrong foot, but Marisol still needs some help. Maybe you could take the reins.
  Fiona: Oh, I think not. No, I'll wait for it to fail, revealing you as the incompetent, lazy loser you are.
  Katie: You have no idea how hard I work.
  Fiona: Oh, I do. I've been keeping notes. Breaks into school, denies blame, passes responsibility onto idiot VP, causing events to fail. Sounds like a good case for impeachment, no? Ta-ta for now.
• Clare, of all people, becomes an Action Girl, and teams up with Katie to take down a hockey player during a brawl at Fiona's condo.
  • Jake throwing a hockey player over a table.
  • When Dallas and Luke wouldn't leave Katie and especially Clare alone, Dallas starts to goad "garden boy" and "theater geek." Only for Eli to interrupt him mid-sentence by punching him in the face. It was enough to give Dallas a bloody nose.
• Alli first trying to comfort Cam when he breaks down crying in "Bitter Sweet Symphony" is just a Heartwarming Moment... And then she finds out that Dallas, who has a massive crush on her, is one of the reasons he's crying. Cue her verbally eviscerating him about how he's a bully and how he blew it with her.
• The end of Season 13's "Unbelievable." Zoë sees her rapist, Luke, flirting with Frankie, who had abandoned Zoe earlier and told her she was asking to be sexually assaulted. She whispers, "Hell no," shoves Luke away from the girl, and announces to everyone that he was her rapist. When she starts attacking him, Becky holds her back and announces that she has proof to back up Zoë because she has Luke's phone, which has more videos of him and Neil raping Zoë. When Luke tries to retrieve his phone from his sister, six guys—Miles, Drew, Dallas, Tristan, Principal Simpson, and a cop—physically keep him away from the two girls. Finally, although both Becky and Zoë are crying, Becky hugs the younger girl and whispers words of reassurance as she takes her away from the scene and three more cops join the scene. Keep in mind that Becky didn't even know who Zoë was and she knew very well that outing her brother would destroy her family, but in the end she chose to do the right thing.
• Becky's utter refusal to forgive her brother in "There's Your Trouble" is pretty awesome in its own right, but her subsequent verbal takedown of him must be seen to be believed. Took a Level in Badass, indeed.
• Firestarter, Pt. 2 has one for the Hollingsworth siblings. Miles, Frankie, and Hunter are able to finally stand together against their father and call him out on his abusive and selfish tendencies. Miles has been on the receiving end of both verbal and physical abuse for awhile now, Frankie was going to be used as a scapegoat for the Degrassi Nudes scandal to save the election, and Hunter finally saw firsthand how cruel their father could be when he was nearly injured in a fit of rage. This act definitely doubles as Heartwarming.
• A small moment, but after Zig cheats on Maya, with Zoë, and tries to get back together, there's this exchange:
  Zig: It takes two people to screw up a relationship.
  Maya: Yeah, you and Zoë.
• Lola (with Yael's help) making a video about her having an abortion, not regretting it, and encouraging other girls in similar situations that it's okay not to.
• In turn, Yael (with Lola's help) discovers their genderfluidity and brings it to life. Hunter sadly has a hard time coming to grips with it, but Yael refuses to go back for anyone, even him. Lola even calls them a badass.
• Winston's absolute verbal demolishing of Esme after he and Zoë apologize for a presentation on Imperial Japan that Esme considered insensitive and she tried to rub it into Zoë's face. He points out that Esme only attacked Zoë for portraying a Japanese geisha, but did not attack him for playing a Imperial Japanese Army officer despite himself being of Korean ethnicity instead of Japanese, pointing out her hypocrisy while doing so.
  Winston: Actually, I have a question for you.
  Esme: Proceed.
  Winston: How come everyone jumped down Zoë for playing a geisha, but no cared that I was playing Japanese? Was it because I am Asian? And there is only one kind of Asian? Because I can assure you that Korean and Japanese are not the same.
• In Season Fourteen, after getting fed up with Damon sexually harassing and bullying her and the other former cheerleaders, Zoë pranks him, and he reacts by getting aggressive and violent, raising his fist right next to Zoë’s face as if to strike her. Zoë is completely unintimidated, merely staring right back down at his glare and then his fist until he backs down.

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