Putting more positive on the ole TL: what’s a moment in a piece of media that took you from “ok this is pretty good” to “oh shit this is GREAT”?
Here are some of mine:
-The entire finale of s1 Severance
-“Satisfied” in Hamilton
-The end of Act 1 in Cyberpunk 77
Here are some of mine:
-The entire finale of s1 Severance
-“Satisfied” in Hamilton
-The end of Act 1 in Cyberpunk 77
Comments
Shhhh sh sh
-Hydrogen in Hotline: Miami
-The revelation sequence from KotOR that I still won't spoil 22 years later. I had to get up and go walk around
The first time I stayed out after dark in the game was legit terrifying, I remember it to this day
(my teen wanted me to listen to it w/ her--she has good taste!)
Ancient Elven god argument in the player's head - Dragon Age, The Veilguard (it went from "I love this" to "holy shit, this is my favorite game)
The introduction of Virgil in Dante's Divine Comedy 🤘
The bucket scene in Quigley Down Under. They had me at Kindly Cowboy Tom Selleck, but the chutzpah in that scene was perfect.
"No one forgets. No one."
Felix & Sarah going to Alison's house for the first time in Orphan Black.
The team chasing a suspect in their swimwear in Life on Mars (UK) ep2
The first issue of Thunderbolts.
- "A choice to be better." SW Battlefront II
- Meeting Keiran in DAI
- The Normandy leaves Earth in ME3
- Hearing the act 1 nighttime elven forest music in TW2
- Meeting Strider in Fellowship
- "On your left." Avengers Endgame
- Andy sitting in silence at the start of Shawshank
Horizon zero dawn: discovering what project zero dawn was.
- The Shapeland section of Defunctland’s Fastpass retrospective.
- “My mouth’s bleedin’, Bert! My mouth’s bleedin’!”
- The Steinman introduction in Bioshock
“My mother was a nymphomaniac” speech in The White Lotus season 1
Taylor Swift needle drop in The Bear S2
Fridge Duty in Control
That one NERV employee outright vomiting at the sight of it.
The way it takes you from "Shinji's doomed!" to "Oh, damn, this is cool!" to "Oh damn. This is... brutal..." to just "oh. damn."
I got to see this one in colour
Good god
https://youtu.be/fShlVhCfHig?si=SU61QLUYR0p4K-Cl
Still one of the best anime openings of all time and considering I was getting up at 6 am to be able to even watch anime in the early 2000s this just blew me away.
Glyn R Brown's "Denarius", 1:50 mark.
Most of other stuff I can think of off the top of my head just kinda gradually escalated into awesomeness.
• REZ, Area 5/"Fear is the Mind Killer" when the sample from Marlena Shaw's "California Soul" drops as that giant satellite monolith crests into the horizon, fully into view as a salvo of missiles blooms towards you
• the opening of Fraction/Aja's Hawkeye #6:
When Sam Bell starts realizing something isn't right in Moon.
When the recursive time confusion of Arrival becomes clear.
Heavensward in FFXIV
Majima's introduction in Yakuza 0
Meeting Aerith in FF7:R
Returning home to pick something up in God of War (2017)
Alone Together in Steven Universe
Sal Limones: Manny, are you in love with her?
Manny: All I know is she's my ticket out of here.
... which was the lightning moment when I realized they were building a full story arc, and suddenly the game became incredible.
-RWBY season 3 finale
-death stranding after act 2
-Harley Quinn rebirth comics one the family and mother storyline started.
-Superman rebirth comic once the continuity cleaned with the new 52 one.
To name a few.
- Figuring out the first multi-marble puzzle in Cocoon
- Majima’s intro in Yakuza 0
And I really have to go into a mini-rant about what makes that so great.
/
1) Protagonist upon whom maladjusted audience nerds can project themselves goes to a fantasy world.
2) Protagonist is handed great power, essentially a "win" button.
/
Re:Zero deconstructs this pattern HARD. Subaru starts as a shut-in and a consumer of these pandering isekai fantasies. So when he gets transported to another world...
/
Instead, his "power" turns out to be ... "Return From Death".
/
And he'll experience EXCRUCIATING death because of it.
/
So Subaru has to do a LOT of growing. It also comes with MASSIVE trauma, as he not infrequently sees *everyone he loves* die in excruciating ways before he does.
/
Panning the camera in Abigail's memory in Obra Dinn.
The "He'll give us what we need" hard cut in Yeezus.
The Yubitsume scene in Outrage.
The moment I first saw what Margiela had done to the buttons at Hermès.
But I feel that the The Second Dream quest in Warframe should be in there.
“It won’t be me. You know that right?” in Halo 4. Just… damn.
Avatar: TLAB — Iroh singing ‘Leaves From The Vine’.
“I see it too.”
"Harry, It explains EVERYTHING." Is so goddamn satisfying.
But what did it for me, was stupidly early when I failed a Savoir Check while trying to skip the hotel bill. HOLY SHIT was everything about that amazing.
Legion Episode 1 when Aubrey Plaza shows up at David's Sister's House
The BAN episode from Atlanta
I Am Your Beast's Title Screen.
The clockwork mansion in Dishonored 2
Progressing past the bad ending in Order of Ecclesia
When they find the secret door in Parasite
Fighting Ifrit and learning abt tempering in FF14
The flashback in Knives Out
The fourth case in Ace Attorney
I ran out of space in one skeet lol
- Building my first hover fan bike in Tears of the Kingdom
Carter and Lucy get stabbed in ER.
The Kodak Carousel pitch in Madmen.
The last act of the pilot for Touch.
Tara is killed and Willow turns evil in Buffy.
The entire final episode of Queen's Gambit.
The 'Forks' episode of The Bear.
The end of Fallen. That very last line. I was like 14 years old and shrieking.
Kentucky Route Zero: The “Too Late to Love You” song scene.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands: Probably has the coolest world moment in the whole Borderlands series, albeit in a TTRPG.
-Getting the initial "quest" in Tunic and the world opening up.
-The first real right of Reacher season 1
-Cyberpunk 2077's initial quest, The heist, and realizing I was playing the E3 demo
Those are some off the top of my head
- Frog Fractions, when you reach Bug Mars
- Portal, when you finish the "tutorial" levels
- Half Life 2, when you get the gravity gun
Thinking about it, a lot of Wes Anderson movies have a key moment for me.
In the wind up bird chronicle by haruki murakami is a part where a veteran tells his story of sitting in a dry well after some very gruesome things happened and then the light is hitting his face.
"He gave Bran a shove," A Game of Thrones
Dead Gunfighters, Planetary #3
Old Cases, The Wire
CQB, The Expanse
-Hugh Cook's intensely humanist fantasy Wizard War.
-video games -the original Master of Orion, X-Com UFO Defense, and Wizardry 7.
-arcade game Robotron 2084.
+ The Marth Reveal in FE Awakening
+ When you do a jojo finisher on a missile in Shadow x Sonic Generations
Open Range, the opening salvo of the gunfight
Romeo + Juliet, Mercutio's first appearance
Dark Souls 2, finding the king
Hades, meeting Theseus for the first time
The Witness, finding the first environmental puzzle
Inscryption, beating the first guy
SOMA, the first coinflip
- The last gameplay sequence in Uncharted : The Lost Legacy. It was pretty chaotic, in a very awesome way lol
* Sanctuary’s Declaration of Independence in Nancy Kress’s Beggars in Spain
* Ripley comes out in the powerloader in Aliens
* “No, honey, we set her free” in The Ring and the last 10 minutes afterward
* The Shadowrun TTRPG module Dreamchipper, when we realized we were up against cyberpunk-era versions of Jack the Ripper, Cleopatra, and Genghis Khan.
* Being lent Metallica's Master of Puppets and realizing there were great bands who weren't on the radio
* Mordin's song in Mass Effect 2
https://youtu.be/ycvJHQUqU1M?si=N8f4PBT9cmpa_3C-
https://youtu.be/ciJDA0tcQfs?si=5HXYcGXedT7v3wo3
- Guns. Lots of guns.
- Neo entering the architect's room
- The AI taking over the dude's body and fighting like a robot in Upgrade
He's always at that perfect positioning
(I was going to try to think of something from Severance, but I was hooked on that from the first frame.)
The introduction of this magnificent bastard
Ending it with them missing the drop by moments, as Philip quips “Why’s everyone so punctual in this business?” and Elizabeth kicks the car in frustration: oh shit this is GREAT
- When the key change happens in the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations"
- When the zombies start dancing in Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video
- John Belushi going through the cafeteria line in Animal House
- Stanley stepping up to protect Jade from being disappointed by John again in The Rock
- "DRAW IT AGAIN!" - Ronin (1998)
So a fair few 'holy shit' moments and I'm not quite done yet!
It's that good of a game!
- FFXIV's transition from ARR into Heavensward
- The midpoint of Jedi: Survivor chapter 4 with the fight against the Empire on Jedha with Merrin blew my mind. I replayed it recently and the adrenaline had my hands shaking.
Spiritfarer: taking your first companion to the gate.
This is How You Lose the Time War: seeing the different places/ways messages were left.
but tbf Time War had several moments like that and I cried in 80% of them.
I need to reread that book.
Episode 3 of Dungeon Meshi, just, all of it.
Dandadan, this hits mid-episode ONE. And then again with the train chase. And then again with the mountain. And then again...
“plate o’shrimp” in Repo Man
Mimes vs clowns fight scene in Shakes the Clown
“Ok this is the money Niska gave us….”
Snowpiercer: "I hate myself because..."
2077: Hiding in the pillar
WC3: "Succeeding you, father"
Matrix: "There is no spoon"
Matrix Reloaded: "The problem is choice"
The best part of the album is the bass, but I had loved that the whole time.
Solas' speech in DA Inquisition
Johnny telling V to pull the trigger in Cyberpunk 2077
Lady Eboshi's story in Princess Mononoke
-Getting my ass kicked by measurehead
-dying in an uncomfortable chair
-shooting the body
-kim sells his rims so i can stay at the whirling
-doomed commercial area
-learning about the pale
-finding the missing husband
Only to return with a fucking Javelin launcher
This + Halt and Catch Fire (another uneven S1 with a sixth episode turn) became my absolute tv series faves from this period.
-episode 3 of Arcane
The reveal in Agatha Christie’s “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd”
Heroes return in “Endgame”
The sister reveal in “Glass Onion”
At first “My Shot” from Hamilton, but then “Satisfied” blew it away
Malcolm Reynolds kicking a bad guy into an engine.
- Betty's last scene in Dead Like Me
- "These things are gonna fly right off!" from Mission Hill
- The first message from Icarus in Deus Ex
- "Who wants a banana?" from Mr. Show
The last line of The Lives of Others (well, that is cheating as it is a perfect movie and it's quite clear all the way through, but the last line is the best in any movie except for Some Like It Hot)
The last line of Act 1 of Proof
ASOIAF - arrest of Tyrion by Catelyn at the inn at the crossroads
Breaking Bad - 4 Days Out
Someone sitting behind me actually cheered.
-The end of Lost S1:4 "Walkabout"
-When the full band kicks in on Jimmy Eat World's "For me this is Heaven."
-Jack Black teaching the kids Smoke on the Water in "School of Rock."
I also loved the endgame of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The ending actually made me tear up.
- Karis Nemik’s anti fascism manifesto is but one out of several peak moments in Andor
- InStar Trek TNG THERE ARE 4 LIGHTS! Plus David Warner as Gul Madred. The confidence, arrogance, and pathos of that character was peak Star Trek.
- Good Will Hunting “It’s not your fault”
- Big Lebowski “Smokey this is not ‘Nam this is bowling there are rules”
- The Clockwork Mansion in Dishonored 2, and realizing you could go behind all the contraptions that makes the mansion.
- Desperately defending your crashed ship against the aliens in XCOM 2 with your entire personnel
- Shivers says anything in Disco Elysium
So so good
-'We Sing' in Alan Wake 2
-Ashtray Maze in Control
-Would you kindly? in Bioshock
-Suicide Mission in ME2
-Finding Ciri in Witcher 3
-Raphael's Final Act in BG3
-Darth Revan moment in KotOR
It's such a charged scene, so DEVASTATINGLY emotional, and the two actors just smash it so far outta the fuggen' park.
Actually, Midnight Mass has more than one of those Power Scenes. 😂
Millennia: realizing just how VERY FUCKING COOL the ages system was from a narrative/emergent storytelling perspective
Slay the Princess: getting the first look at the MCs hands. It is such a small thing, but it enamored me totally
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO2a0XLmn7w
I played ME1 & ME2 6 or 7 times each. I have only done ME3 twice but not b/c it's bad - it's just so intense to experience all those choices paying off.
I think it pretty much sums up the old adage "Life's what you make it."
Going through the red gate in Signalis.
Going through a black hole in Outerwilds
[S] Jack: Ascend
Episode 7 and episode 11 of Sonny Boy.
Episode 16 of Clannad Afterstory
But also the halfway point in One Cut Of the Dead. iykyk
- The calamitous heist in Andor
- First Shot A Winner Lads episode of the Terror, culminating in Crozier telling his lieutenants he’s going cold turkey
- Jack rescuing Stephen from Port Mahon in HMS Surprise in the Aubrey-Maturin novels
- Betrayal and arrival in the flooded district in Dishonored
- The Hitman trilogy’s subversion of its own formulaicness, especially the end of Patient Zero and the Berlin nightclub level
"1000xresist" when it's time for the school dance
"the OA," e1 storytime
- Inscryption Act 1 ending.
- The first 30-40 minutes of Ni No Kuni Wrath of the White Witch
- Deltarune (Specifically about halfway through Ch 1)
- Hi Fi Rush's 1st boss
- "You can't just shoot a hole into the surface of Mars!"
- The entire first "act" of Shadowbringers.
- Persona 5's intro sequence
- Pokemon B/W's Elite 4 segment
- Hades, that one flashback where Zag finds out who his mother is.
- Insomniac's Spider Man, finding out who Peter works for.
- Blue Eye Samurai's entire first episode. Special mention to the blacksmith flashbacks.
- The ending of Invincible episode 1.
- She-Ra being from The Horde (and by extension her whole thing with Catra)
- Avatar The Last Airbender, the Air Temple Episode
One of those things where you just gotta get up and walk around for awhile
2. The first story in “Hyperion” - after I finished I was like ‘this going to be one of the best things I’ve ever read.’
3. When I saw one of George Grosz paintings I changed my major to Art History
Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty - Sequence after betraying So Mi
Wheel of Time - Current season. It has gone from good to Epic. It has managed to turn reddit around it - truly epic!
Stage to black. Then she reappears, naked, in a spotlight. STUNNING.
Then Bernadette sang "Roses Turn," which is right at the end of the show. It was transcendent. So much pathos and sadness. The audience leapt to its feet.
Tbf, I was loving BG3 already by that point, but that fight pushed BG3 straight into “THIS GAME RULES WTF”
ALL MORTAL LIVES!
EXPIRE!
- Realizing why the narration was so weird in Harrow the Ninth.
- "I did warn you not to trust me" in A Game of Thrones.
- The entire end of Arcane's third episode.
Fargo S2E10
Stealing the Enterprise from Star Trek III
Crossing the river to Mexico in Red Dead Redemption
The opening shots of Star Wars
Adding: Conan the Barbarian, after he finds the sword in the tomb and uses it on his chains
- The entire "Mean Jerk Time" sequence in Silicon Valley.
- Talking to Sovereign in Mass Effect.
- Demi Adejuyigbe's "Cartoon Characters Invited to the Cookout" presentation on @smartypantsshow.bsky.social
- the first dream sequence in Disco Elysium
- the chapter "NPC" in the book "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow"
LOTR: Fellowship, seeing the Balrog emerge as the fellowship races to the Bridge of Khazad Dum. You could feel the heat somehow.