Awesome / Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Remember: Moments pages are Spoilers Off.

• Believe it or not, the game's Noob Cave is able to give us one. The first portion of gameplay centers solely around Cal's movement: running, jumping, swinging on ropes, etc. There are reminders everywhere: "L2: Use to climb", "R3: Use object," standard stuff. But at the end, he and Prauf get in a bit of trouble, and the game urges you to save him with the coolest tooltip in the history of video games:
  R1: Use the Force.
• Doubles as a Tear Jerker, but Prauf's death during the opening sequence qualifies. The Second and Ninth Sisters have Cal and his fellow workers surrounded with Purge Troopers and are ordering the Jedi to step forward, lest the entire group face summary execution. Then Prauf declares it's time somebody said something and steps forward, and naturally, Cal begins to freak out. But does Prauf sell Cal out to the Empire? Nope - instead, he gives a blistering "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the Empire. It earns him a lightsaber to the chest, courtesy of the Second Sister, but it shows that you don't have to be a quick-shooting/Force-wielding/high-flying badass to take a stand against the evil that is the Galactic Empire.
• Cal is about eighteen at the start of the game, which means he was around twelve or thirteen when Order 66 was given. The fact that he evaded detection for as long as he did is pretty impressive.
• Cal's entire escape from Bracca can be considered this. He hasn't used the Force - or his lightsaber - in years, trying to stay under the radar. But the moment the Imperials kill his only friend right in front of him, all bets are off. To wit, he breaks out his lightsaber and immediately attacks the Second Sister - which gets him thrown over a cliff by the Ninth Sister for his troubles - only to land on a train and promptly maraud his way through Imperial forces as he tries to find a way off-planet. This culminates in a duel between him and the Second Sister - one he walks away from, despite her having an edge over him, thanks to Cere and Greez flying to his rescue.
• In your first proper fight with the Second Sister, Cal is hopelessly outmatched and is saved from certain death by BD (entirely on his own initiative) reactivating a forcefield door to separate them. Bringing BD's recently-acquired gameplay abilities into a cutscene like this is not only a great bit of Gameplay and Story Integration, it really emphasises BD's intelligence and agency in his own right, and makes him a worthy successor to R2-D2.
• Even as much of a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment as it is, no one can deny that the fighting waves of Monsters and Bounty Hunters as the Mongolian metal band The Hu plays in the background isn't at the very least an awesome and fun experience.
  Cal: You want a show? -reaches up to catch his lightsaber as it flies in from off-screen- I'll give you a show!
• Your introduction to Kashyyyk has Cal and the team swooping in to help Saw Garerra and his Partisans repel the Empire's forces. Cal's idea to help even the odds? Hijack an AT-AT walker. What follows is a tense sequence of diving into the ocean to swim up alongside one of the walkers, clambering up the thing using the moss and weeds clinging to its hull and legs, taking out the Stormtrooper the Empire had the foresight to station on top of the AT-AT, slipping in through a hatch, and taking out the crew. Then Cal and BD-1 take control of the AT-AT, and you get to turn its massive guns on the Imperial army. And it is glorious.
  • Doubly at the very beginning of the mission. Seeing Republic LAAT/i dogfighting (and WINNING) against Imperial TIE fighters and making attack runs on Imperial AT-ATs, blue blaster bolts (a signature of Republic forces) impacting the AT-AT as Cal climbs it, gives the brief illusion of the Grand Army of the Republic itself fighting against the Empire.
• In a way, the reveal that Cere was broken by her torture and gave up the location of her Padawan is awesome, because the game all but straight up says she didn't break until Darth Vader himself took over her torture. It took the very own Right Hand of the Emperor to break Cere's will.
• The Order 66 scene is easily one of the most emotional in the game. However, it's also pretty awesome seeing Jaro Tapal take on an entire Venator Class Star Destroyer, which he blows up to ensure that Cal escapes. It's easy to see that Order 66 might have had a very different outcome if the Jedi hadn't been so caught off guard by the clones.
• When the Ninth Sister runs into Cal on Kashyyk, she doesn't waste time challenging him to a duel, she just starts strafing him from her shuttle, leading to a Slide Level chase through the forests of Kashyyk, one which is abruptly interrupted when her shuttle is snatched in mid air and carried off by a larger example of Kashyyk's wildlife.
• Cal taking down the Ninth Sister in a straight fight. She's spent the whole level of Kashyyyk - up to that point, anyways - trying to kill him, and during her boss fight, she mocks Cal, the defunct Jedi Order, and expresses sadistic glee regarding the idea of torturing and killing Cal and his friends, only for him to defeat her one-on-one and then put her down for the count.
  Ninth Sister: YOU CAN'T STOP THE EMPIRE!
  Cal: I can stop you! (Throws her over a cliff)
  • Credit to the Ninth Sister: when most lightsaber duels in Star Wars occur, they are only finished when either the combatants are unable to reach each other, or when one is struck directly with a saber. Cal manages to cut off the Ninth Sister's hand, and she takes it in stride, switching to her other hand without missing a beat.
    Being an Inquisitor taught me no setback is too great. When you've already lost yourself... a limb's easy.
• Cal building his own lightsaber on Ilum is a suitably epic moment, especially since it comes moments after BD-1 pulls Cal back from the Despair Event Horizon. It's followed by Cal putting his new toy to use in an absolutely biblical rampage through a group of Imperials who picked the absolute worst time to visit Ilum. Even the sheer numbers of bad guys (NINE Security Droids) do nothing to slow him down.
  • Not to mention Cal's decision to make his Lightsaber able to split in two. Cal can master the three distinct Lightsaber combat styles of Single Blade fighting, Double Blade fighting and Dual Wielding. Not bad for someone who technically isn't even a Jedi Knight at that point.
• Cere knighting Cal with Trilla's lightsaber right before the two of them storm the Fortress Inquisitorious.
  Cal: You won't be alone.
  Cere: No. I'll have a Jedi with me.
• Storming said fortress shows why the Empire views Jedi as such a huge threat, as it only took two of them to breach one of the Empire's most secure facilities. It makes one wonder how long the Empire would last if Vader wasn't around to hunt down Jedi survivors.
• The final duel between Cal and the Second Sister. After spending most of the game trying your best to hold your own against this vicious, unrelenting Inquisitor each time you encounter her, only to so out of your depth that you have to be saved by the cutscene every time, there's something cathartic about being able to see the fight through to the end...and by this point, you're strong enough in the Force (and health/stim upgrades) to make it a fair fight!
• The very end of the game when Darth Vader appears. Rogue One was praised for showcasing Vader's power, but it has nothing on what he does here. It truly emphasizes just how unstoppable Vader was. It gives Cal a Moment of Awesome himself for managing to just survive the encounter.
  • Vader's entrance gives his famous appearance during the end of Rogue One a run for its money. To wit, he walks out of the mist, ominous music - from Revenge of the Sith, no less - playing the whole time, giving a dark undertone to the familiar Vader Breath that accompanies his footsteps as he prepares to showcase to the heroes exactly how screwed they are. To hammer in how hopeless this is from a gameplay perspective, he doesn't even have a health bar.
    Vader: You would be wise to surrender.
    Cal: Yeah. Probably.
  • It speaks to the power of both Vader's entrance and his overall pop-culture reputation that almost every Let's Player and streamer that plays this sequence doesn't even try to fight Vader before his scripted Force Choke.
    • It speaks even more to his recognition that virtually every reaction to his mere breathing is enough to cause either a shocked look of realization, or just horrified screaming.
  • Let's talk about Vader's actual entrance, and "fight". Trilla suddenly goes stiff, unable to speak or move as he enters with his signature Vader Breath heralding him, which makes it clear he's force choking her. He jumps down from the platform, at which point both Cal and Cere fire up their lightsabers apparently on pure fear response. He cuts down Trilla, at which point Anakin's Dark Deeds to kick in. Cere attempts to buy Cal some time by fighting Vader, only for Vader casually force throw her off the platform. With a hand gesture. Then the "fight" happens, which is Vader effortlessly parrying everything you throw at him. After a second he starts Force choking Cal, who attempts to pull a huge structure towards him, and Vader stops it while still choking Cal. Vader throws Cal to the entrance of the arena, crushes the door as it's closing and starts ripping apart the entire arena and the bridge outside it with no effort. It was then that Cal decided to run rather than fight him. The entire scene just goes to show that despite his abilities being crippled by his injuries and Cyborg status, he is still one of the most powerful force users in the universe.
• It’s a cutscene that barely lasts a minute, but dear God, Cere taking on the purge troopers in the prison fortress. Using both her blaster and Trilla’s lightsaber, she easily dispatches of not one, not two, but three of the game’s most hated Demonic Spiders. It really highlights just how much more Cal has to learn - showing the stark difference between a fresh initiate and a veteran knight.
• Cal and Cere surviving their encounter with Vader, particularly during the second part in the tunnel. Vader knocks Cal down and nearly kills him, but BD is able to shock Vader and stun him for a moment. Not only that, but Cal thereafter actually manages to stab Vader—a glancing blow that clearly did almost nothing and got Cal stabbed in the same spot in return, but still impressive.
  • Then Cere comes back, manages to block a few blows from Vader, and then subdues him with the Dark Side but not even that is enough to stop him and he rises to his feet and continues advancing. When Cal talks her down from Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, she's able to raise a shield with the Force that keeps the both of them safe long enough for Cal to then break the windows in the underwater tunnel, letting the pair swim to safety while Vader holds back the water with the Force (a moment of awesome in and of itself).
    • Cere actually managed to literally bring Vader to his knees for a moment as she crushed the air around him. Even faced with someone who might actually be able to at least hurt him badly, he simply compliments how strong she is with the Dark Side.
    • Let's put Cal and Cere's escape from Vader another way: they only managed to slow him down long enough to get away by dropping an ocean on him. And Vader SURVIVED that.
  • In summary? Two Knights, one newly-minted and the other having only just restored her connection to the Force, held their own against (and successfully escaped from) Darth Vader in his prime. Bad. Ass.
    • Darth Vader, not one to be outdone, successfully holds back the awesome might of the ocean as the Jedi make their escape. In fact, the fact that he has to dedicate all of his power to holding back the Entire Ocean of Nur trying to flood into the Fortress Inquisitorus is the only reason they escape.
• The final battle of Meditation Training: after battling your way through the Ninth Sister, Malicos, and Trilla, you're faced with Inquisitor Cal, a brutal Mirror Boss who will push you to your utmost limits and is that Sugaan Essena playing in the background?!
• Even if Trilla gets immediately curb stomped by Darth Vader, her "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner is made of awesome. Just two words. “Avenge us.”
• Merrin jumping in to help wail on Malicos; the fact she was a notably hostile antagonist before this point really emphasises the value of her allyship when Cal finally earns it. Further still, her help is actually useful to the player by depleting Malicos's stamina, making the fight really feel like a punchy team effort against an adversary that neither Cal nor Merrin were experienced enough to defeat on their own.