History Main / GoodWingsEvilWings

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'': Most reincarnated or supernatural beings have wings, which they can retract at will:

* ''Toys/MonsterHigh'' is about monsters. Many, many kinds of monsters. They're no more or good than humans, so any wings only are part of their particular monster heritage. Harpies have bird wings, Western dragons have dragon wings, the insectpeople have whatever insect wings are appropriate, etc. Of note are Batsy, Bonita, and Cupid. Batsy is said to be a white vampire bat and commonly assumed to be a hupia.[[note]]Batsy is from the dying days of the original generation, when the franchise got skittish with spotlighting monsters unknown to North America.[[/note]] She has wings that look like solid graffiti and it's not known what they're supposed to represent. Bonita is the child of a skeleton and a mothperson and therefore has bone wings shaped as moth wings. And Cupid is implied to be a bone elemental, whose wings were given to her when she was adopted as a newborn by the Cupid household. They are made of bone and look like a broken-open ribcage. Possibly in reference to her wings being a divine gift, they attach differently than other wings. Others use pegs to attach to the shoulders, while hers hang from her neck. This remained true when she was moved over to ''Toys/EverAfterHigh'' and was made to have angel wings.

* ''Manga/SazanEyes'': Members of the Hyoma clan can assimilate other beings and transform accordingly. It is noticeable that two evil Hyoma (Galga and his unnamed lieutenant) can grow bat wings, while the NobleDemon Gupta has a set of insectoid wings kinda like a dragonfly, and later does a HeelFaceTurn.

* ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'': Inverted, as the sociopathic twin [[MeaningfulName Cain]] has three sets of white wings (which do give him an EldritchAbomination vibe) and Abel has black (just one pair, but they do cool things like [[ShockAndAwe electrocute people]] and [[FoodChainOfEvil suck vampire blood]]). Bonus points for Abel's wings tattered and broken appearance.

** TheHero Silver Crow has sleek metallic wings made up of a number of [[WingPull retractable]] fins in his signature colour. The anime adaptation changes them to StationaryWings made up of HighTechHexagons.

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'': Most reincarnated or supernatural beings have wings, which they can [[WingPull retract at will]]:

* ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'': Dizzy has a pair of sentient angelic wings - a blue-white wing named Undine and a green-black wing named "Necro". Undine takes the form of a woman, while Necro appears as a grim reaper. Undine’s few attacks are usually defensive, while Necro will utterly wreck any threat to Dizzy, no matter the cost (or her objections), and can even possess Dizzy in the direst of circumstances. It's quite obvious they don't get along very well and one of her taunts is the two wings arguing with each other.

* ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'': Dizzy has a white (or blue, technically) angelic wing named Undine and a black (it's actually green) angel wing named "Necro". Undine can take on the form of a woman, while Necro appears as a grim reaper. Undine’s few attacks are usually defensive, while Necro will utterly wreck any threat to Dizzy, no matter the cost(or her objections), and can even possess Dizzy in the direst of circumstances. It's quite obvious they don't get along very well(one of her taunts is the two wings arguing with each other).

* Creator/{{Michelangelo}}:

* ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheLastHope'': Sarah has Angel Wings, but can't fly. Both of the {{Bonus Boss}}es have Energy Wings and will grow up to two additional pairs after being defeated, to signify increased power.

* ''VideoGame/BreathOfFire'': Nina has wings along with the rest of Wyndians. In ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireII'', however, she has dark purple wings which signify her as an evil omen in Wyndian Prophecy, yet ironically instead of bringing disaster, she helps save the world. On the other hand, [[spoiler: Myria]] in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'' is portrayed as a four-winged angelic being which makes her appear to be on the side of good [[spoiler: until you realize, upon closer inspection, that her wings are ''[[UncannyValley upside down]]'']].

* the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'': Many of the main character demons have small wings, including [[spoiler: Flonne, who has little angel wings that become bat ones after she becomes a fallen angel]]. In addition [[EverythingsBetterWithPenguins Prinnies]] also have them. [[VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness Seraph Lamington]] has the three-set seraph wings. [[spoiler:He ends up being an EccentricMentor ''and'' the final boss]].

* '''Pterosaur wings''' are in the same league as bat wings, but rarer. If they're not on an evil character, they are on a [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs dinosaur person]], though there is [[PrehistoricMonster a lot]] of [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent overlap]].

* ''LightNovel/AccelWorld'':

** [[https://scryfall.com/card/2xm/354/kaalia-of-the-vast Kaalia]] is a legendary human cleric with two sets of wings, one white, feathered and angelic and the other red, leathery and demonic, representing her willingness to ally with any power angelic, demonic or draconic for the sake of fulfilling her quest of revenge.
* ''TabletopGame/UnstableUnicorns'': The Archangel Unicorn from Control has bird wings, while the Nightmare Unicorn from Chaos has bat wings. However, the Shadow Unicorn and the Valkyrie from Chaos have bird wings, in what mat be be a case of DarkIsNotEvil.

* ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' plays with this trope. The first elf to have wings is Tyldak, who already could fly without them but wanted the particular freedom birds have. So, he turned to Winnowill, a healer, who gave him what he wanted but morphed his entire body into an elf-pterosaur-bat hybrid as a means of control. His leathery wings therefore are less a sign of him being evil and more a sign of him being touched by evil. Millennia later, he tried to undo Winnowill's work, but was killed before he could. His son Windkin developed the same obsession with bird-like freedom but made a better choice of healers to turn to. Leetah and Snakeskin gave him translucent bug-like wings hanging from his arms that he can easily wrap up if they'd otherwise get in the way.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' doesn't escape this trend. In the first scene of the entire series, the 0 Gundam had giant energy wings called GN Feathers (which wasn't intentional, but the result of particle leakage). The binders on the 00 Raiser resemble wings, and you can just barely make out the outline of GN Feathers during [[spoiler: Trans-Aa Burst.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'':

** Keenan's summer court has a [[HornyDevils sucubus]] named Cerise, who seems to be a rare exception to the bat wings=evil rule.

** Jasmine in the ''ComicBook/ForgottenRealms'' comics and ''Lost Gods'' is as close to normal human as WingedHumanoid with [[TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}} spelljamming]] and planewalking experience can ever be -- she is a normal human, but after [[spoiler:an encounter with goddess incognito]] [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor she got wings]], and their form changes [[spoiler:to fit the current plane. So well that in the Abyss she was mistaken for [[HornyDevils Alu-fiend]] by ''locals'']]. Good luck making any assumptions regarding her nature or disposition on this basis.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': Celia (LawfulGood) is a sylph with four white insect-like wings; Sabine (ChaoticEvil) is a [[HornyDevils succubus]] with dark, leathery bat wings.

** Tenchi Masaki himself being able to manifest Light Hawk Wings was something of a big mystery as he could summon three wings and use them to create armor and a sword. Then he encounters Z, who can summon five wings, is quite the psychopath and nearly kills Tenchi. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Tenchi and Z are avatars of the Tenchi-verse's God, though Z was manipulated by Tsunami's sister Tokimi. The two and their other sister Washu decide Tenchi's the better of the two and reset time so Tenchi can grow into his powers better and let Z live a better life.]]

** In the ''TabletopGame/BlackCrusade'' RPG, [[PlayerCharacter Heretics]] can gain wings as a mutation. Heretics aligned to Khorne gain bat wings, Nurglites get fly's wings, Slaaneshi heretics get beautiful, gossamer-like "pinions", and followers of Tzeentch get bird's wings. Unaligned or Chaos Undivided characters are subject to the whims of players and the GM. Since all Heretics are, by definition, evil on some level, the Khornate wings are the only one that plays this trope completely straight.
* Sanguinius, Primarch of the Blood Angels, sports Angel wings. He's also one of the few unambiguously good people in the setting - and (being ''40k'') [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth Too Good For This Sinful Galaxy]].

** '''Black angel wings''' represent {{Fallen Angel}}s, nearly all the time. Occasionally, they may be certain tiers, such as archangels. Might mean DarkIsNotEvil and/or GoodIsNotNice.

* ''Literature/GoodOmens'': Both angel and demon wings are the same, despite [[CoversAlwaysLie what some of the cover art suggests]], though angel wings are described as being less groomed (because [[EvilIsSexy demons are more stylish]]). The BrokenBase rages to a ridiculous degree over the colour of the wings; the division is between those who portray angels with white wings and demons with black wings and those who interpret "the same" to mean they all have white wings (who usually take it as SeriousBusiness). Which is silly, given that the colour is never specified on ''either'' side in the book, and the characters are all shapeshifters anyway, so they could have [[Literature/{{Discworld}} octarine]] wings for all we know. The one exception is [[TheGrimReaper Azrael]], whose wings are described as being more like wing-shaped holes in space.

* In ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' the angel-like Icyene, followers of the GoodIsNotNice god Saradomin, have white feathery wings. The aviansie, followers of LawfulNeutral god Armadyl, have feathered wings also, although theirs are mostly brown/earthy tones. The various demon races, who follow the ChaoticNeutral god Zamorak and his TrueNeutral predecessor Zaros, who are both propagandised as evil in the game's lore, have leathery bat-like wings.

*** TheFairFolk are famous for having BlueAndOrangeMorality, which makes it somewhat hard to say where any of the characters are on the good/evil scale. Irial, at least, is ChaoticNeutral or a NobleDemon at worst.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': Celia (LawfulGood) is sylph with four white insect-like wings; Sabine (ChaoticEvil) is a [[HornyDevils succubus]] with dark, leathery bat wings.

** Devils only ever have a single pair of thin bat wings, emerging from low on their back.

** Issei isn't that skilled with his devil wings, but after becoming more experienced with his [[NextTierPowerUp Balance Breaker]] form he can grow large dragon wings from his armor. His [[SuperpoweredEvilSide incomplete Juggernaut Drive]] incorporates some of Vali's [[StatusAilment "Divide"]] abilities, transforming him into a giant, gaunt DraconicHumanoid with skeletal wings that drain the life from their surroundings. His AllYourPowersCombined form, Cardinal Crimson Promotion, gives him energy wings that resemble a more ornate version of Vali's. [[SerialEscalation His next form after]] ''that'', [[GodOfHumanOrigin Diabolos Dragon God]], causes these wings to split in two.

* '''Pterosaur wings''' are in the same league as bat wings, but rarer. If they're not on an evil character, they are on a [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs dinosaur person]], there there is [[PrehistoricMonster a lot]] of [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent overlap]].

* Creator/SandroBotticelli: The Art/SistineChapel's fresco ''The Temptations of Christ'' gives the Angels feathered, white wings to indicate their loyalty and holiness while {{Satan}} tries and fails to disguise his black bat wings, giving away his identity as a withered and corrupted angel that only wishes to make the heroic [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} Christ]] as disgusting as him.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'', the Celestrians have white, feathery wings. However, [[spoiler: after being corrupted by his hate for humanity, Celestrians Corvus' wings lose their feathers, revealing them as green and bat-like underneath. King Godwin, another boss and villian, has a second form which has bone wings]].