Ivanhoe/Awesome

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Wilfred in the tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouche, naturally.
  • Robin Hood in the archery phase of the above tournament, where he hits the bullseye of a target while barely paying attention, continuing to chat with Prince John and the others as he shoots, and doesn't concentrate on a target until its an incredibly skinny pole... which he himself chose for a target and still hits. Extra points for being a good sport and genuinely praising his opponent for trying his best.
  • Cedric the Saxon is forced to dine and celebrate with a bunch of Norman nobles after the tournament, where Prince John insists it's only fair for him to make a toast to a Norman. Surely there must be one Norman Cedric doesn't hate... Cedric toasts Prince John's brother King Richard.
  • Gurth's staff fight with Miller. This doubles as a CMoA for Robin Hood and his crew for letting Gurth pass afterwards without robbing him because they respect and sympathize with him.
  • Wamba, The Jester and Servile Snarker, walks and breathes CMoA, but at the top of the list are:
    • Volunteering to be the one who enters Front-de-Boeuf's castle disguised as a monk when everyone else is too afraid to take this role in the rescue plan.
    • Tricking "the Black Knight" into giving him the horn Robin Hood gave him to call for help because he knows the Knight would be too proud to actually use it when they need help... which happens not too long afterwards.
  • The siege of Front-de-Boeuf's castle, especially:
    • The Black Knight breaking the two main barriers down in a row.
    • Ulrica burning the castle down.
  • Rowena telling off de Bracy, to his dismay. Isn't she flattered that he kidnapped and imprisoned her and her guardian because of the madness her beauty drove him into? No! Isn't she touched by his Purple Prose courtly language? No! De Bracy learns the hard way that the obstinant Rowena is not to be trifled with (although cedric could have told him that, given her declaration to choose life in a convent over marrying Athelstane).
  • Rebecca threatening to kill herself rather than let Bois-Guilbert rape her. Yes, it doesn't sound awesome summarized, but the actual scene is awesome. It just has to be read to be believed.
    • For maximized awesome effect, the two above scenes happen more or less simultaneously, and de Bracy and Bois-Guilbert actually meet in the hallway afterwards to commisserate over the mutual failure of their Scarpia Ultimatums that night!
  • Rebecca's Take That at the Honor Before Reason Code of Chivalry during her debate with Wilfred.
  • Rebecca's perseverance against her predator Brian de Bois-Guilbert during her imprisonment in the Preceptory at Templestowe, proving her and the Narrator's claims that women's passive courage is more impressive that men's feats on the battlefield any day.
  • Wilfred showing up to defend Rebecca... and goading Bois-Guilbert into accepting his challenge via Nobody Calls Me Chicken.
  • The Lazy Bum Athelstane even gets one after he comes Back from the Dead, when he explains to Cedric that sometimes, you have to Know When to Fold'Em, in a speech that supports the novel's running theme of how sometimes, chivalric Honor Before Reason stops being admirable and starts being stupid:

"Bread and water and a dungeon are marvellous mortifiers of ambition, and I rise from the tomb a wiser man than I descended into it. One half of those vain follies were puffed into mine ear by that perfidious Abbot Wolfram, and you may now judge if he is a counsellor to be trusted. Since these plots were set in agitation, I have had nothing but hurried journeys, indigestions, blows and bruises, imprisonments and starvation; besides that they can only end in the murder of some thousands of quiet folk. I tell you, I will be king in my own domains, and nowhere else."

  • The revelation of the Black Knight's Secret Identity -- not the surprise, but the inherent awesomeness of the character...
    • ... although the narrator/author gets awesome points for reminding the reader that even King Richard the Lionheart wasn't perfect and just how!