Awesome / The Expanse

The books:

Leviathan Falls

• When the Rocinante's crew is ambushed by Tanaka and a bunch of power armoured soldiers, it seems that she might actually capture Teresa. It then fails after Alex pilots the ship in at them and proceeds to use the PD Cs on the squad, almost literally mincing them.
• Immediately after, Tanaka, who survived the attack, sneaks ahead of Holden and Teresa to continue the kidnapping attempt. She realises too late that Amos isn't there as he lurches up behind her, pounds her into the ground, gets elbowed in the throat hard enough to kill a human, and pounds her into the ground again. He then gets shot through the chest with an explosive round that leaves a hole the size of two fists. He survives.

The TV Series

Season 1

Episode #1: "Dulcinea"

• The intro, showing humanity's ascension from being earthbound to becoming an interplanetary civilization, set to a soaring melody as we take a grand tour of the Solar System.
• The establishing shot of Ceres, going from a ship coming in to dock and making its way through the different levels, showing the hollowed-out structure of the asteroid and the socioeconomic divides of the station, backdropped by the narration of an agitator in the Medina and neatly setting up most of the major themes of the story.
• The Canterbury executing a high-g maneuver, demonstrating the show's (mostly) realistic physics, the effects of acceleration, and even the sparkling trail of propellant mass left by the "Cant's'' drive plume!
• Miller, after an entire episode of ignoring the problems of Ceres Station and taking bribes from a slumlord named Vargas whose cut corners poisoned the air for an entire residential block, hits his limit after he hears the kid of one of his neighbors coughing to the point where she can't play with her friends.
  • So what does he do? The natural thing for a Belter when someone messes with the air: he drags Vargas to an airlock, tosses him in, and nearly suffocates him to death by venting all the atmosphere, before telling him to keep those filters clean.
  Miller: Air is good, don't you think? Air is nice.

Episode #4: "CQB"

• Even though they are ultimately unsuccessful at repelling boarders, the Donnager puts up a fight as it tears through several ships and missiles with its rail guns and PDCs.
• The surviving Canterbury crew has to turn off their grav boots to be fast enough to run through gunfire. When Holden and Naomi lose their grip on the catwalk, Holden does some quick thinking involving Newton's third law to get them back on track.
• After the crew board the Tachi, the firefight turns into a Curb-Stomp Battle as its PDCs shred through the boarding party and shrugs off their small arms fire.

Episode #8: "Salvage"

• Miller and the Rocinante crew's dual investigations finally meeting up in the middle of a huge gun battle.

Episode #10: "Leviathan Wakes"

• Miller embracing his roots as a Belter as he riles up the crowd to attack the soldiers oppressing them.

Season 2

Episode #1: "Safe"

• As her fellow Martians cheer her on, Bobbie Draper shows off her strength and toughness as a marine when she arm-wrestles a suit of power armor. Not only does she defeat it, but she makes the servos within the armor spark and smoke when they finally give out. Pretty impressive coming from someone who grew up on a planet with a third of Earth's gravity.

Episode #2: "Doors and Corners"

• The Rocinante, pretending to be a loose cargo container, clumsily tumbles through space. The moment it's in position, Holden gives the order, and it deftly halts it's tumble and fires its main engine.
  Holden: Heat 'er up!
  Amos chuckles giddily.
• The stealth ship comes out of hiding from behind the ring station and fires off several torpedoes to take out the Guy Molinari. The Rocinante quickly maneuvers into a defensive position and swats away the missiles with her PDCs.
• Shortly after intercepting the missiles, the Rocinante trades PDC fire with the stealth ship. Hundreds of rounds tear through the Roci's hull, nearly going through its crew, but despite this, the ship is functionally almost completely unharmed. Even the tactical display screens, a few of which have glowing holes in them, still work just fine. It's a reminder that this is exactly what the Rocinante, a Martian gunship, was built for - not just to dish out punishment, but to take it.
• The Guy Molinari launching FedEx containers as pods for boarding parties, showcasing Belter ingenuity and resourcefulness.
• The Rocinante taking out the much larger and better armed stealth gunship protecting Thoth Station is pretty awesome, especially given that most of the simulations both before and after suggested that it would easily destroy the Roci.

Episode #5: "Home"

• Miller and Julie Mao stopping Eros from destroying Earth. Miller reaches the human consciousness of Julie Mao, trapped at the heart of the Protomolecule, and shows her compassion and love. This gives her the strength to redirect Eros into Venus (pictured above), this saving Earth from annihilation. Doubles as a Heartwarming Moment.

Episode #11: "Here There Be Dragons"

• Bobbie finally getting completely fed up with the Government Conspiracy and proceeding to beat the ever-loving shit out of Martens. She then proceeds to steal evidence, escape, and reach the Earth border to request political asylum. In five minutes, she manages to expose the entire conspiracy with just her fists.
• The team needs the Rocinante to evacuate them from Ganymede. The only problem is the two hostile fleets in the way, who would notice the second Alex lights up the main engine. So he sneaks in without the main engine: a scenic, gravity-assist trajectory around moon after moon!

Episode #12: "The Monster and the Rocket"

• Errinwright is about to be Hauled Before A Senate Subcommittee over his role in the protomolecule conspiracy. Just when it looks like he's going to lose everything, he turns the tables with a few ruthless moves and one "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  Errinwright: Martian Defense Minister Korshunov suffered a fatal heart attack earlier this evening. Simultaneously, the MCRN Karakum, dispatched by Korshunov to take delivery of your protomolecule technology was destroyed over Ganymede. And I gave the order. And I can give the same order to end your life where you breathe, at the same coordinates I'm sending this message.
  Errinwright: Monsieur Mao, there were two men in the entire universe who could protect your protomolecule project, and now Korshunov is dead. I can assure you, I am the only friend you have left. And do not test my resolve on this.
  Errinwright: Chrisjen... you taught me, you drilled it into my head, that Earth must come first. And now you throw me to the wolves, for fulfilling my sacred oath. While you grovel at the foot of Mars, and Jules-Pierre Mao. And that is the real betrayal here.
  Errinwright: So Jules, you will clean up the mess you made for me, you will return to Earth alone, you will await my instructions, and you will get the fuck back to work.
• The Roci showing up for a very literal Gunship Rescue to shoot down the torpedoes fired at the unarmed refugee ship Weeping Somnambulist. Followed by Holden talking their way through the approaching UNN and MCRN battle fleets over Ganymede by threatening everyone and invoking Mutually Assured Destruction.
  Holden: (after having target locked everyone within range): This is the warship Rocinante. You're aware of our capabilities more than anyone. We're escorting a vessel of refugees away from your AO.^note Area of Operation, read "battlefield" Any ship that opens fire on us will feel the sum total of our state-of-the-art Martian arsenal rammed up its ass. We'll all die together. This is our only and final warning, stay clear.

Season 3

Episode #2: "IFF"

• The Roci manages to intercept, blind, then blow the engines off a much larger and better armed UNN Leonidas-class warship chasing the Razorback in one hell of a Big Damn Heroes moment.
  Holden: We're punching above our weight here. We need to end this now.

Episode #6: "Immolation"

• Amos stops Prax from killing Strickland.
  Prax very clearly wants to shoot, but he hasn't killed anyone before and Strickland is on his knees, begging, selling the "terrified good guy" act perfectly
  Amos: (appears from off-screen, gently lowering Prax's gun) You're not that guy. You're not that guy.
  Prax leaves
  Strickland: (standing up, relieved to be alive) Thank you. Thank you.
  Amos turns to him. Strickland's face falls.
  Amos: I am that guy.
  Boom, headshot
• The very end of the episode, with the protomolecule Constructor Moon rising slowly out of Venus' atmosphere and heading into space, purpose unknown. Amos voices the thought that the entire audience is probably thinking:
  Amos: What. The fuck. Is that?

Episode #7: "Delta-V"

• The subplot about Maneo Yung-Espinoza, a young hotshot racer who rocks out to a Belter version of Deep Purple's 'Highway Star' as he performs record-breaking gravity-assisted stunts. When his girlfriend, Evita, breaks up with him because she is tired of waiting for him, Maneo gets the crazy idea of flying through the ring in her name, and plots a course, going quiet to avoid detection. Once there, he learns that Evita is willing to get back with him if he pulls it off, and he gleefully commits to the idea. After telling the Martian warship guarding the ring to stuff it, he begins an epic speech about how he will make history, all in the name of his beloved... Just before the ring instantly halts his ship's velocity, but not Maneo's momentum, killing him instantly in a gory mess. He indeed made history, though perhaps not in the way he intended.

Episode #9: "Intransigence"

• Camina's rousing speech
  We are the belt, we are strong, we are sharp and we don't feel fear. This moment belongs to us. Beltalowda! Beltalowda! Beltalowda!

Season 5

Episode #7: "Oyedeng"

• Naomi escaping from Marco's ship, by throwing herself out an airlock. Without an EVA suit. Thanks to injecting herself with a hyper-oxiginized blood sample, she survives.

Episode #8: "Hard Vacuum"

• Despite being in bad shape after her time in the vacuum in the previous episode, Naomi still strains herself in an effort to stop the fake distress call that's luring Holden to her, and manages to alter the call to say just what she wants it to.

Episode #9: "Winnipesaukee"

• Drummer, after putting up with being forced to join the Free Navy and having even her Number Two Oksana side with them, finally gets sick of being Locked Out of the Loop and calls Oksana out on keeping secrets from her.
  Drummer: Don't treat me like a child! I've earned the truth. Marco killed Klaes Ashford, and I sat on my hands and played nice with him so you would be safe. He killed a woman I loved, and now he wants me and mine to murder her friends, and I go along again. How much shit do I have to eat before you treat me with some respect?!

Episode #10: "Nemesis Games"

• Drummer finally has enough and mutinies against Karal before the latter can start firing on the Rocinante. Her crewmates Michio and Josep also rebel, with Josep following Camina's lead and firing on their fellow Free Navy ships, while Michio clocks Karal on the head and kills her before she can shoot Drummer.
  • Between Drummer changing sides and the Rocinante's own ammunition, they destroy the enemy Free Navy ships and thwart Marco's plan to destroy the Roci. Avasarala later states that Marco wanted to destroy it because it's a symbol of cooperation and camaraderie between Earthers, Martians, and Belters, which threatens the narrative of his goals; yet in the end, Drummer, a Belter herself, chose to side with this "symbol" as opposed to the all-Belter Free Navy, proving again that Marco's hateful, separatist ideology is not as strong as he wants it to be.
  • Naomi jumping off the Chetzemoka into free space in just a space suit that's low on oxygen to save Alex and Bobbie from getting themselves killed trying to dock with it to rescue her. Followed up by Bobbie managing to spot her free-floating, and saving her just before she dies from running out of oxygen.

Season 6

Episode #6: "Babylon's Ashes"

• Bobbie and Amos's last stand. After concluding that they are hopelessly outgunned, they decide to go out fighting. Bobbie goes out before Amos notices and holds her ground against a massive amount of gunfire until she's able to fire rockets to destroy the railguns's power generator. The Free Navy gunfire knocks her to the ground, but Amos shields her with his body. Before the two of them are seriously hurt, the Rocinante swoops in and takes out the Free Navy troops.
  Amos: Fuck yeah, Roci.
• Holden being nominated to the new position of Trade Union President, meant to be a mediator between The Belt, Earth and Mars, and monitor the Ring Gate. Holden goes off-script during his inaugural speech; after declaring Drummer his Vice-President, he immediately resigns, giving Drummer the presidency and making sure that the Belt is represented by someone who will fight for it.
  Avasarala: Don't you fucking do it.