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This is a page for the trope Fallen Angel. For pages with similar names, see also:
The 1847 painting The Fallen Angel | The 1945 film Fallen Angel | The 2003 comic book Fallen Angel | The Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic Fallen Angel

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fallen_hero.jpg
"And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled but it did not prevail, neither was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him."

What does one think about when one hears the word angel? Do you see them as glowy Winged Humanoids, overworked suits, or for extra flavor, flaming wheels covered in eyes? Regardless of what (meta)physical traits one assigns to them, one thing is almost always consistent: they are paragons of virtue and honor.

But what happens if they stop being so nice? Then we have a problem. See, when you turn your back on God (or the local variant) while knowing They're the real deal, there's really nowhere to go but down.

And down they go; when an angel goes bad, they tend to become far, far worse than any human ever could. They'll gleefully engage in atrocities that would leave any mortal curled under their beds in fear. The cause of their fall may be an old grudge, some extreme More than Mind Control, or completely unknowable to mortals. Whatever the cause is, there's no going back.

Very, very rarely are any examples of this good, and usually only in certain circumstances. At the opposite end you have Ascended Demon.

Often an extreme case of Light Is Not Good and Fallen Hero. May or may not be considered demons. Not to be confused with Fallen Angles. The ur examples come from hints of angels who faltered and not so nice heavenly beings in The Tanakh with the Trope Maker coming from an interpretation of Isaiah's rebukes to "Lucifer", though it's worth noting that "Lucifer" is explicitly stated in the surrounding parts of the chapter to be the King of Babylon and nothing to do with a fallen angel whatsoever.note  Usually represented visually as a Broken Angel, though some still have their "un-fallen" countenance. If they were the right hand of the big guy upstairs, and brought a mass of other angels down with them, then it's also a case of The Paragon Always Rebels.

Thanks to some modern interpretations and the tendency to side with underdogs, fallen angels are often portrayed sympathetically nowadays: often as rebellious victims of Celestial Bureaucracy and Light Is Not Good like in Bedazzled (1967), or perhaps as lovable rogues like in Time Bandits. Often portrayed as regular angels, but with skimpier outfits (often with a red and black motif) and a bit sluttier personalities (they're usually female, due to women being portrayed as more corruptible than men. Think Adam and Eve).

And as a warning, if an Archangel or higher angel happened to be the one who fell, be afraid. Be very afraid.

Not to be confused with the comic book of the same name, the eponymous Cabanel painting, or the professional wrestler with the Red Baron "The Fallen Angel", Christopher Daniels.


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  • In Angel Sanctuary, Setsuna is a reincarnation of one of these, and his sister is a reincarnation of a water spirit she had a history with, making this also a case of Reincarnation Romance.
  • Black Butler (2008): Fallen angels such as Ash/Angela want to purify humans from their sins. They think the only way to do this is to extensively modify a human's behavior and thinking, and/or to completely annihilate them and to start over; this is an act they say will bring about "Doomsday."
  • Satsuki from Bloody Cross. Though, it's never really explained how or why he became a fallen angel.
  • A Certain Magical Index:
    • A Fallen Angel makes an appearance. Not exactly its fault so in compliance with its extremely lawful Lawful Neutral nature it begins a spell of world destroying proportions in order to get back home. Later in the novels (vol.12) is confirmed that the angel is Archangel Gabriel, the one who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
    • According to Vento of the Front, fallen angels come into existence when angels, who shouldn't have free will due to being made as perfect tools for God's will, "malfunction" and start acting out on their own, which is what happened to Satan and his brethren. Motoharu further explains it as angels are like remote-controlled cars of God. If one of the cars couldn't receive the commands because of some failure, or if the command received was wrong, this is when they become demons, known as fallen angels.
  • Lucifer in The Devil is a Part-Timer! is a fallen angel, and had even served as a general for the demon army under the titular Maou. However, the series being a Fantastic Comedy, he has since "regressed" into a NEET on Earth.
  • Digimon: Devimon is said to be a fallen Angemon. Lucemon definitely is, an angel Digimon who went bad and was imprisoned for it. "Fallen Angel Digimon" is actually one of the types that Digimon fall into, though Lucemon's the only one known to actually be this in-story.
    • Digimon Frontier:
      • Lucemon, who originally resolved the war between the Human Hybrids and Beast Hybrids, became a tyrant over the time and was defeated and banished by the Legendary Ten Warriors. Being based on Lucifer, the theme goes further once he returns and evolves into his Falldown Mode, for which he is known as one of Seven Great Demon Lords outside of Frontier. After Lucemon Falldown Mode is beaten, he's reborn as Lucemon Satan Mode, an enormous dragon that is about to bring the end of the world.
      • Lucemon isn't the only fallen angel. One of the Three Holy Angels, Cherubimon, started to become frustrated over Seraphimon's order and laws that mostly benifit Human Hybrids, but kind of discriminate the Beast Hybrids, while Ophanimon is more on Seraphimon' side than Cherubimon's. It's revealed that Cherubimon negative emotions made him an easy target for Lucemon's corruption, turning him into his Evil/Vice form. While in that form, he assaults Seraphimon, captures Ophanimon and he's destroying the areas of the Digital World to rule it.
      • When Mercuremon uses Seraphimon's DigiCodes to transform himself into the holy angel, he becomes BlackSeraphimon.
    • The Murmukusmon in Digimon Next is actually a fallen HolyAngemon.
    • Digimon Adventure tri.: Raguelmon is the Ultimate form of Meicoomon that it manifests near the end of Confession to exact its rampage. When Taichi vanishes, Hikari's Nyaromon also Dark Evolves into Ophanimon: Falldown Mode, who quickly merges with Raguelmon into the Angelic Abomination Ordinemon.
    • Digimon Adventure: (2020): Seraphimon briefly became BlackSeraphimon while immersed in The Corruption, though it also weakened him to the point that he very quickly reverted to his non-fallen lower-level forms. Also, SkullKnightmon and DarkKnightmon are this more indirectly, being the corrupted form of Tailmon/Gatomon, who was Ophanimon in a previous life and remains a holy Digimon in the present.
    • If a Seraphimon gets corrupted enough, it becomes a Demon. If an Ophanimon gets corrupted enough, it becomes a Lilithmon. And whenever it happens, be afraid.
    • An Ophanimon who has fallen from grace, but not entirely discarded her ideals becomes Ophanimon Falldown Mode. While not actively malicious she loses all perspective and any sense of compassion leaving nothing but a merciless raging judge that deals swift death to anything she deems "evil". While not as deeply corrupted as a Lilithmon, Ophanimon Falldown Mode is potentially even more dangerous as nothing will stop from enacting her twisted "justice" on everything she sees.
    • Raguelmon is a fallen version of Rasielmon that grew paranoid and hateful after seeing too many potential negative futures from her foresight. In this state, she is obsessed with hunting down and killing fellow angel Digimon she believes might fall to darkness. The longer this continues, the more bitter and nihilistic Raguelmon becomes until she eventually abandons what's left of her ideals and devolves completely into a savage, indiscriminate killer.
    • If Raguelmon and Ophanimon Falldown Mode combine, they produce Ordinemon: an angel digimon of incredible power driven mad by the pain, anger, and sadness of both components. In a warped sense of kindness, Ordinemon feels duty-bound to eliminate all sorrow and pain from the world...by destroying it to put it out of its misery so it can start over from scratch.
  • D.N.Angel has Krad. While Dark is mischievous and flirtatious, Krad is pure evil. He wants to destroy Dark and anyone who gets in his way, including innocent civilians.
  • In Dragon Ball Super, Zamasu, an apprentice Kai from Universe 10 and Supreme Kai in training, gradually develops Knight Templar tendencies and an utter loathing of mortal life to the point of becoming the closest thing the Dragon Ball series has had to the fallen angel archetype of Satan. He eventually falls completely, with one version of him killing his master to usurp his position and becoming Goku Black before setting out to wipe out all mortals in the multiverse (and all the Gods too so he could reign supreme) while teaming up with his Future Timeline counterpart. To add to the symbolism, their combined form Merged Zamasu has a Holy Halo and when that's destroyed, his imperfect immortality results in him hideously mutating into a demonic abomination.
  • Played for Laughs with the main protagonist of Gabriel DropOut, who was originally a very kindhearted, well-mannered, and respectable angel, who wanted nothing more than to make as many people happy as possible... until she discovers Video Games a few minutes into the first episode/sometime later in the manga. Next time we see her, she has turned into a lazy, apathetic, and rude slob, who even calls herself a fallen angel (or, a "faillen angel" because she was tempted by earthly delights, but not cast down to hell) and openly disregards her former values.
  • In High School D×D, Fallen Angels are one of the main supernatural factions, along with Angels and Demons. The major ones include Azazel, leader of the Fallen Angels and The Mentor to Issei, Akeno Himejima, Rias's vice and one of Issei's numerous love interests (although she's technically half-Demon, half-Fallen Angel), Reynare, who kickstarted the story by killing Issei, and Kokabiel, the Big Bad of Volume 3.
  • Interspecies Reviewers has Crim, an angel who's stuck on Earth due to a damaged halo. Subverted in that he didn't actively rebel and is only fallen by accident (though he soon discovers the perks of no longer being Invisible to Normals). Later on we meet other angels who want to damage their halos and experience the pleasures of the flesh.
  • In Love Live! Sunshine!!, Yoshiko Tsushima's alter ego is the self-proclaimed fallen angel "Yohane", who was cursed and banished from Heaven by God. Unfortunately for her, the series is a mundane Idol Genre show, and she really just has a very bad case of Chuunibyou.
  • Mon Colle Knights: Reda and Zaha/Gabriolis. The plot always turns serious when they show up.
  • Shirogane Karen from My Monster Secret claims to be one, having lost her Holy Halo several years prior. She tries to be evil, but fails hilariously as she's a really nice girl who wants to help everyone.
  • The titular Panty and Stocking of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt are literally this, but can return to Heaven if they gather enough coins from killing demons. Stocking gets to go back to heaven in the penultimate episode, but returns in the last to help Panty defeat Corset; the final scene states she's not actually an angel but a demon.
    • Appropriately, the end credits song for the show is called "Fallen Angel" and is about said angel longing for her home in heaven.
  • Lucifer and Gabriel of Saint Beast are fallen angels. While kind of evil, it's hard to say they were wrong to fall given who is in charge. Judas and Luca, though armed with nobler intentions, end up falling too.
  • Seven Mortal Sins starts with Lucifer being expelled from heaven for the sin of Pride (we eventually learn she refused a command to start The End of the World as We Know It). She challenges the seven demons of the Mortal Sins to become their new leader over the course of the series, sprouting demonic horns when the demons tear off her wings.
  • That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: The "Sleeping Ruler" Dino is a True Demon Lord that is a fallen angel. At first glance you wouldn't know it since, aside from his silver hair with purple streaks, he looks like an otherwise normal guy, if lethargic and work-adverse to the extreme. His two "subordinates"/friends are also fallen. Normally, angels are too aligned to the Holy element to allow the demonic Demon Lord Seed to take root, but his "impurity" allows him to be an exception. The reason he's a fallen is because when True Dragon Veldanava died, in a rage he descended from Heaven and wiped out the nation that was responsible to the last inhabitant and almost went on a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum before he saw Veldanava's infant daughter Milim Nava and couldn't bring himself to go through with it. Also, despite his "fallen" status, it turns out that many of his angel comrades haven't taken Veldanava's death any better than he did, just being more subtle about it.

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    Comic Books 
  • Crimson had Zophiel, who fell from grace after murdering an human (even though her victim had it coming), being deprived of her powers and immortality to atone for her deed. She is allowed to return to Heaven after pulling an Heroic Sacrifice by Taking the Bullet for someone else.
  • The DCU:
    • Zauriel from Justice League of America is sort of a fallen angel. He lives on earth and has a mortal body, but left of his own volition and is decidedly not a villain. His original archenemy was the angel Asmodel, who after his plan to emulate Lucifer failed became a more conventional fallen angel, imprisoned in Hell. In one arc when the US military turned against superheroes soldiers were convinced to shoot at him when their commander claimed he was a fallen angel. Then they shot at Superman, and gave up.
    • Similarly, The Spectre is actually the fallen angel Aztar, who participated in Lucifer's rebellion and then repented. God realized that Aztar needed rehabilitating before he could be allowed to get rid of that "fallen" status. As a result, he's spent the entire time since the Fall acting as an agent of God's Vengeance, punishing those who escape justice at human hands, bound to a human soul that acts as a sort of combined moral compass and parole officer. He'll be allowed back into heaven when he's punished every unpunished-by-man sinner on Earth.
    • The Phantom Stranger is another, in one of his Multiple-Choice Past histories. Having sided with neither Heaven nor Hell, he was discarded by both after the great war.
  • Dylan Dog once showed us Dust, an angel kicked out of heaven for unspecified reasons and sentenced to wander the world and commit evil and be hated for it, with the added bonus that, as an angel, he's unable to understand evil. He's since taken to committing evil on serial killers and monsters, thus ultimately doing good by making them suffer with imprisonment.
  • Liandra, the protagonist of the comic book Fallen Angel is, as one would expect from the title, one of these. A former guardian angel, she was banished when went against God's rules of non-interference and slew the killer of one of her charges.
  • There are many Fallen Angels in Neil Gaiman's short story (later adapted as a comic) "Murder Mysteries". Oddly, Lucifer isn't one of them... yet.
  • In Preacher, being cast down is a punishment for treasonous acts in Heaven. The father of Genesis is cast down at the very start of the series, nearly taking out US Air Force jets (and is subsequently captured by the Grail). Later, two minor-character angels are dropped; they're later seen having opened a hotel in Vegas and not being very depressed about their fallen status.
  • Transformers: The War Within: The Fallen, the Big Bad of War Within - The Dark Ages, is actually one of the original Transformers, charged with guarding Entropy and observing the end of the Universe. Along the line, he decided to ally with Unicron to achieve his apocalyptic goal, losing his true name when his betrayal was discovered. Ironically it was Megatronus Prime. One would have to wonder at the thought process behind Optimus and Megatron's father effectively choosing to name one of his sons after their version of Lucifer, and not expect it to bite him in the backside. However, there are some stories which say that Megatron actually chose the name himself.
  • 2000 AD:
    • The titular beings of Necrophim are former angels cast down into Hell. To make matters worse, Hell was already inhabited by demons, who are not happy about having to share their dimension with Heaven's outcasts.
    • Caballistics, Inc.: Ethan Kostabi, The Chessmaster of the series, is in fact an angel who fell down to Earth several thousand years ago and has since been living under different human identities.
  • Vertigo Comics:
    • The Sandman (1989) features a Lucifer (referred to as Lucifer Morningstar as his full title) who wasn't so much "fallen" as he was "pushed". It is heavily implied, if not outright stated, that Lucifer's "fall" was a case of entrapment (in the legal sense) set up by God, because God needed to put one of his own in charge of Hell.
    • Later on, Lucifer, gives up being in charge of Hell, and it ultimately passes onto two other angels, by decree of God. When one of them hears this, he claims he will rebel, but then realizes he would then be going to hell anyway. Lucifer's story then leads into the events of the Lucifer comic, in which Lucifer makes his own Creation, and ultimately rejects even that, exiling himself from all reality to escape God's influence.
    • The First of the Fallen in Hellblazer is something of this sort: He was intended to be God's conscience (shoulder angel, if you will), and was cast from heaven when he came to believe God was insane and that his existence was meaningless. According to a somewhat convoluted Vertigo Canon — trying to keep continuity with The Sandman (1989) — he was the first being God cast from His sight, long before Lucifer's rebellion, but is much less powerful than Lucifer and thus not the lord of Hell until Lucifer quits. The First of the Fallen acts much more like a 'stereotypical' devil, with soul-bargains and so on, and antagonizes John Constantine on a regular basis. This leads to almost equal amounts of Did You Just Scam Cthulhu? from Constantine's side.

    Fan Works 
  • Becoming more than what I am.: Since travel between worlds has to be sanctioned to only a few angels after Lucifer's failed rebellion, Max's decision to go to Earth is a permanent one, her lilac wings dyed black in the process.
  • Lucifer, in Goddess Reborn Chronicle, who was once not the most favored angel but a part of God, the part that was the hope inherent in believing in God but grew so disgusted by his own laws that he began wishing for freedom, earning his fall and cementing him as the patron of the path of freedom and competition.
  • Rarely, (although the number's on the rise ever since the tv series came out) fanfiction and fanart for Good Omens explores the idea that Aziraphale fell instead of Crowley. Another variant is him falling because of his association with Crowley, usually played for angst, occasionally comedy (Aziraphale falling out of pure spite that Gabriel forced him to choose between Heaven and Crowley, anyone?).
    • In the notoriously depressing Mirror Universe Dark Fic The Sacred and the Profane, Aziraphale is the one who fell rather than Crowley. As such, Aziraphale is now Zirah, and Crowley is now Caphriel. Zirah is still the jovial bookkeeper who is friends (read: lovers) with Caphriel and decides to avert Armageddon. He's also exceedingly ruthless in this goal ( killing the spare baby for starters) and is utterly nightmarish when doing evil, having completely lost his sanity from the Fall. In fact, he's stationed on Earth in this universe because even Hell was scared of him. When Hastur and Ligur try to threaten him, he casually terrifies them into fleeing, and the moment they stop, even for a split second, he catches up and does ''something'' to them.
  • Imperfect Metamorphosis has Shinki and Sariel, rulers of their respective underworlds. Interestingly, Shinki's human appearance is a personal choice, one which Sariel did not share, leaving it as a gender-less energy being. Also, and more plot relevant, is their sibling Azrael, of whom EX!Rumia is an avatar of.
  • Jimmy Two-Shoes the Movie: Misery Loves Company: Jimmy becomes one at the end voluntarily. After being invited to live in Joyville as an angel, he ultimately decides that he prefers living in Miseryville with his friends and thus chooses to cast himself out of Joyville.
  • In Metamatronic's Monster AU, Izuru Kamukura is depicted as a fallen angel who possessed Hajime Hinata as a result of an experiment gone wrong by Hope's Peak Academy.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
  • In the Frozen (2013) fanfic Sorry About The Mess first chapter here, this is true nature of both Grand Pabbie and The Mirror, although they both had very different reasons for why it happened

    Film — Live-Action 
  • In Bedazzled (1967), the Devil (or Lucifer as he was known then) explains he was once God's favorite angel and was booted out of Heaven when he wanted some of the same adoration God received. The two since had a running wager on who could claim ten billion souls first; if Lucifer won he could reclaim his old place. Lucifer does get the ten billion souls first, but God denies him the win due to a technicality.
  • There's a fallen angel in City of Angels. He wasn't evil; he just wanted to experience human life. Then the protagonist falls... in love. And takes the plunge.
  • The Skesis and Mystics from The Dark Crystal are a very unusual example in that they're the split halves of angelic beings, the urSkeks. A group of urSkeks got kicked of their homeworld due to architectural plans and got stuck on Thra; longing to get back home, their ritual to purify themselves backfired and they got divided into dark and light halves. Both halves lost their divine luminiscence and are prone to dying of old age, particularly the Skesis who have their bodies severely warped and deformed.
  • The Devils Tomb is about a military squad sent to extract a scientist from an underground laboratory that's housing a seraph. Here the seraph is depicted as a Humanoid Abomination that causes hallucinations and turns people into unkillable extensions of its Hive Mind, and it's pissed off at God for not appreciating it.
  • Dogma is about two fallen angels, Bartleby and Loki attempting to return to heaven. A deleted scene implies that much of the evil and corruption seen in the fallen angels who became demons stemmed not from inherent evil but that which was brought to Hell by damned humans. Twisted and corrupted by the self-imposed torture of the damned, the fallen angels became what humans expected them to be.
  • Fallen has this as the source of its title, with a fallen angel/demon serial killer.
  • The Australian film Gabriel (2007) follows the angel Gabriel going into purgatory to find out what's happened to his fellow angels. The villain Sammael is actually revealed to be the angel Michael, who killed the original Sammael and took over as him.
  • He Never Died revolves around a fallen angel who spends his life playing bingo and trying not to eat people.
  • Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe becomes one in Thor when Odin expresses disappointment at his actions, and a heartbroken Loki releases his grip on Gungnir — he's a minor god who has fallen from grace and from the heavens (Asgard), and plunged into the abyss. His actor directly compared his experience in the year that follows to going through "the Seventh Circle of Hell." He returns in The Avengers to mess with the human race who are under protection of Odin and his son Thor. Humans are not the ones to judge him for his sins though — in Thor: The Dark World he is brought before Odin, and found guilty.
  • The title characters in Time Bandits are low-ranking angels who went rogue in search of loot across space and time. Ironically, the villain (played by David Warner) is a Satanic Archetype, but he's not explicitly an example because the movie never specifies that he used to be an angel.
  • In Wings of Desire, angels Damiel and Cassiel are tired of being angels rather than human and just listening to the thoughts of humans without being part of what they see ad when Damiel falls for a French trapezist he decide it's time to fall and live as a human.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Charmed (1998):
    • Guardian Angels are whitelighters there to guide good witches and other future whitelighters, and they are ruled by the Elders. While Good Is Not Nice, they are ultimately good. Season 6 introduces an Elder called Gideon, who was The Mentor to Leo, but becomes the season's antagonist once he learns that baby Wyatt is destined to become a tyrant when he grows old enough. While a Well-Intentioned Extremist, he kills two innocent people who try to stop him from essentially murdering a baby.
    • Given that Wyatt is half-whitelighter, thanks to Leo's genes, his evil future self would be an example too. He also stands out in that he retains his whitelighter powers even when evil. But since the past is changed, he never grows up to be this, and instead becomes a force of good.
    • And since Paige is half-whitelighter, any time she turns evil, she is technically this. In fact, in her first episode, the Source of All Evil tries to get her to join evil by convincing her that she should kill a man she believes is abusing his son. She nearly does, but the others are able to save her.
  • Doctor Who: In "Voyage of the Damned", the starship Titanic contains robotic Hosts in the form of golden angels in white robes who are supposed to help passengers. When they are activated by the villain to kill the survivors onboard the ship, they remove their haloes to use as weapons, with the posts that remain looking like devil horns.
  • Crowley and his fellow demons in Good Omens (2019), though Crowley says he didn't fall, he "sauntered vaguely downwards". Crowley brings up two other exonerating points for himself: one, back then (before the Creation of Earth), all that it took to "fall" was simply to ask questions, and two, he hung out with the wrong people.
  • Hannibal: Dr. Hannibal Lecter isn't a literal example (probably), but the concept of the Fallen Angel is the primary influence on how the show's version of this character is presented.
    Bryan Fuller: Mads Mikkelsen, the actor who plays Dr. Lecter, talked about the character not so much as 'Hannibal Lecter the cannibal psychiatrist', but as Satan – this fallen angel who's enamoured with mankind and had an affinity for who we are as people, but was definitely not among us – he was other. I thought that was a really cool, interesting approach, because I love science fiction and horror and – not that we'd ever do anything deliberately to suggest this – but having it subtextually play as him being Lucifer felt like a really interesting kink to the series. It was slightly different than anything that's been done before and it also gives it a slightly more epic quality if you watch the show through the prism of, 'This is Satan at work, tempting someone with the apple of their psyche'.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Much like the Balrog, Sauron is a Maia who was corrupted by Morgoth. Unlike the Balrog, he has apparently maintained a human size.
  • Lucifer (2016):
    • The titular character for one. When he decided to move to Earth and open a nightclub he cut his wings off so he couldn't return to Hell and actually destroys them in the first season after one of his brother Amenadiel's attempts to manipulate him into returning. Though they mysteriously return in the 2nd season finale.
    • Amenadiel himself starts falling in Season 2 as a result of the many sins he committed attempting to bring Lucifer back to Hell, his wings actually rotting off and his other powers fading. Though he regains the wings in the penultimate episode of Season 3 to bring Charlotte to Heaven.
  • The Monsters episode "Hostile Takeover" featured a Fallen Angel who called himself "Obeah" and looked more like a conventional demon than an angel after falling into Hell.
    Obeah (disguised as the janitor): I had a pretty bad fall. Maybe you've read about it... in The Bible? That's what they call it. A Fall. I'd say I was pushed!
  • In Supernatural, fallen angels are angels who have been cut off from Heaven; the resulting affect on angels varies depending on how high said angels are on the celestial hierarchy. Their reason may range from simple AWOL to full-on rebellion, but all of them inevitably land themselves a spot on Heaven's Most Wanted List, so each individual fallen angel come up with ways to evade the armies of Heaven.
    • For the average angelic foot-soldiers, being cut off from Heaven will restrict some of their abilities (Healing Hands, Resurrection etc.) and leave them with a limited amount of angelic energy. Deplete said energy will effectively turn them human.
      • Anna, knowing this, cuts her angelic energy—Grace—out when she left Heaven. Reborn as an almost-human, it is nearly impossible for the Heavenly Host to find her among the billions of people on Earth.
      • Castiel is probably the more traditional fallen angel, slowly losing his powers throughout season 5.
      • Balthazar's defection might eventually run into this problem as well, so he keeps himself charged with human souls.
    • For seraphs, even after severing ties with Heaven, they still keeps all of their abilities. And though they can be exhaust when over-using their power, their angelic energy can be self-replenished with rest.
      • Castiel in late-season 7 and season 8 is a fallen seraph. He is clearly weaken by his time in Purgatory probably due to over-taxing himself in Monster Land, but soon self-recharged after his release.
    • For archangels, being cut off will have absolutely no effect on them. They will keep all their abilities and complete with an unlimited self-sustained power source to boot. This because they predate both Heaven and the rest of the cosmos.
      • Lucifer, of course, is a fallen archangel. The demons of this setting are all derived from human souls; if Lucifer took any other angels with him when he left, they go unmentioned and are apparently dead now. If any demons are former angels, they are most likely all drained of their angelic powers long ago, became human, then damned in Hell due to not being high enough on the angelic food chain.
      • Gabriel. The reason he can skip out of Heaven and keep all his abilities is because he is an archangel.
    • At the end of season 8, Castiel loses his grace and all of the angels fall. The others have only lost their wings, so they retained some of their power, but Castiel is pretty much a human. Obviously, this did not apply to Lucifer and Michael since they were trapped in the Cage, and when they were both released years later they could still fly.
  • Super Sentai:
    • Mahou Sentai Magiranger has Raigel / Meemy, a former "Heavenly Saint" who switched sides during the war with Infershia.
    • In Tensou Sentai Goseiger, Buredoran/Brajira turns out to be a former Gosei Angel who wants to reboot the world.
  • Tidelands (Netflix): Grigori Stolin believes that sirens are this, and wants to contact them so he can speak with his dead daughter again, saying they're the closest he'll get to God.

    Music 
  • Within Temptation: The song "Angels" seems to be about this and has the lines, "Fallen angel/ tell me why/ what is the reason/ the thorn in your eye"
  • "Fallen Angels" by Black Veil Brides is about this (duh), but uses the fallen angels less as an evil figure and more as a symbol for misfits and outcasts.
  • Fallen Angel by the Blue Öyster Cult on the LP Cultösaurus Erectus:
    Gonna rise up from Hell! I am a fallen angel!
  • Billie Eilish's video for "all the good girls go to hell" starts off with her growing feathery wings (a scene that segues from her earlier video, "bury a friend"), before falling all the way down from the heavens into a tar pit. In addition, after some time her tar-coated wings catch fire and turn into devil wings.
  • Nautilus Pompilius: A fallen angel is described in the song "Like a fallen angel", sympathetic.
  • The song 'Fallen Angel' by Norwegian singer-songwriter TIX, which was also Norway's entry for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest. It's about unrequited love for a woman he considers an angel, while he himself is a fallen angel who could 'never ever reach up to heaven'.

    Myths & Religion 
  • Older Than Feudalism: Abrahamic religions, especially but not limited to Judaism and Christianity, often feature evil angels as either villains or the villain himself, Satan.
    • Fallen angels apparently debut in the Book of Enoch, a Second Temple religious text that was still accepted and popular as late as Jesus' time, as well as its derivates. In this tradition, probably inspired by the Mesopotamian story of the Apkallu, a cadre of angels named Watchers are tempted by the beauty of human women and descend to Earth to copulate with them, becoming corrupted and engendering monsters (the Nephilim) which God has to clean up with the Deluge.
    • The idea of Satan himself as a fallen angel, rather than a regular angel entasked with seducing sinners, is popularized by Jesus himself, who proclaims to have seen him literally fall "like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18) and later assures that eternal fire is ready for him and his rebel angels (Matthew 25:41). This story appears further detailed in the Second Book of Enoch, a work of unidentified dating that either influenced Jesus or was influenced by him, which casts "Satanail" as an arrogant rebel and retcons the fall of Adam and Eve as one of his evil manipulations.
    • Posterior texts give the role of Satan to Samael, also typically listed as a seducer of sinners in God's service, who is now portrayed as having Gone Horribly Right in his functions due to his envy towards Adam and Eve. After Samael engineers their fall by planting the tree (and sometimes after fathering Cain), God curses him and kicks him out. The influence of this tradition made Samael the fallen angel by default in Kabbalah, which even paired him up with Lilith as an Unholy Matrimony.
    • Some Gnostic authors, especially from the Simonian school, state that the entire world and the human bodies were created by fallen angels. Even after Gnosticism phased out the term angel in favor of Archon, the idea of one or more divine entities who fell from grace remained the basis of many-if-not-most Gnostic branches. The Cathars, for instance, postulated that we are fallen angels, seduced by an evil god into inhabiting fleshly bodies.
    • In Islam, there is much debate among scholars on whether Iblis (their version of Satan) and his followers are fallen angels or evil jinn. Doesn't help that he has been described as both an angel AND a jinn in The Qur'an. It is commonly believed that Iblis is a jinn because angels are viewed by many as having no free will, therefore they cannot rebel. (Though doctrine never flat-out states if they have free will or not either)
    • In the European Middle Ages, a common belief was that The Fair Folk are fallen angels. One version of the story states that when the rebel angels were thrown out of Heaven, those that landed in Hell became demons and those who landed on Earth became the Fair Ones. Another versions describes them as having been those angels who remained neutral during the War in Heaven, resulting in them being welcome in neither Heaven (because they'd been no more loyal than the active rebels) nor Hell (because they hadn't helped the rebels fight), forcing them to stay on Earth.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • In the Mexican Universal Wrestling Association (UWA), Los Misionares de la Muerte were a trio of fallen angels sent to Earth to eliminate El Santo.
  • When she first started in the wrestling business in Florida in the early 1980's, Nancy Sullivan Benoit (aka Woman) was Fallen Angel, a member of Kevin Sullivan's devil worshiping cult.
  • Lucy Furr's gimmick was getting kicked out of "The Erotic Heavens" and deciding to prey on Earth's hoes (and steal the souls of wrestlers). Opposed by sweet Heaven Sent and Jerkass Angel Williams from "The Canadian Heavens". Ironically, Lucy turned face after being sent to "The Eight Circle Of Hell".

    Radio 
  • In the first season of Old Harry's Game Satan was prone to reflecting wistfully on his time as an angel, much to the irritation of his lieutenant, Gary.
    Satan: Do you remember my wings, Gary?
    Gary: Not really, no.

    Toys 
  • Makuta Teridax of BIONICLE was first presented as an equal evil brother of Mata Nui, striking him down to take over the world. Later the Makuta were revealed to be a brotherhood of demigod-like peacekeepers and bio-engineers created by Mata Nui to watch over the world and populate it with animals, but because of their fearsome shadow powers and unknowable dealings, the universe didn't admire them like the publicly celebrated Toa heroes, which made them jealous. Teridax figured out a way to put Mata Nui into a coma, forcing much of his Brotherhood to join him and killing those that didn't, thinking he would be a much better ruler than Mata Nui, who didn't pay much attention to his people. Former Makuta leader Miserix managed to survive and stayed on the side of good despite being just as ruthless and malicious as Teridax, as he knew it was better not to rebel, which he was proven right about in the long run.

    Visual Novels 
  • Anghel in Hatoful Boyfriend insists he is the reincarnation of one and is summoned by the protagonist wishing for the 'Mad Love of a fallen angel'. However, he is considered the 'class eccentric' and has a normal name as well, which he refuses to answer to—it seems to cause him pain. It turns out that he emits hallucinogenic pheromones which he lacks immunity to himself, making him truly believe he's a fallen angel.
  • Obey Me! – One Master to Rule Them All! has the Player Character move into a dorm with seven demon brothers, all of whom were angels who fell after joining the rebellion of Lucifer, the eldest brother.
  • In Tears to Tiara there's a council of twelve angels and one 'failure' who got cast out of the heavens. However, the angels are kind of dicks apart from one, the one who raised Arawn and whose memory inspired him to rebel. The fallen angel can't really be considered bad but he's frequently considered very dark. He actually still does possess holy powers, but he can't channel them properly without hurting himself though if he was at full strength this might not have been the case.

    Webcomics 
  • The Angel with Black Wings: Bis Sis committed a sin that turned her wings black and banned her from the heaven as a result.
  • Beyond the End: The story is about End, a fallen angel that was cast down from Heaven without explanation and is trying to get back to Heaven to learn what he did wrong. Along the way he meets a fellow fallen angel, Cain, who fell after killing an entire squad of angels and Lucifer himself.
  • Demonseed Redux: The backstory notes that the first demons were angels who wanted to breed with humans by force. The Big Bad Galadriel is literally one of The Fallen, thought it's not explained why full demons answer to him.
  • Homestuck: Lord English, the main villain, is a Cherub, a being that would normally play an important role in stabilizing universes either protectively or destructively and in guiding or driving them towards completing the cycle of Sburb. However, he's become monstrous, twisted, evil and indiscriminately destructive, and is often referred to as a demon.
  • Jack has Lucifer of course, as well as some others such as "Mr. Aecas" who works with Vanity to steal mortals and harvest their energy in an attempt to make her beautiful again. Skye Blue Deer is one who asked God for forgiveness and was put in charge of Purgatory as a means of earning his way back to Heaven.
  • Petal Knights in Kill Six Billion Demons have given up following the Law and live as violent hedonists. Though it hasn't been explored, there's no way they can be in the good graces of the Council of Angels. (The Holy Thorn Knights, on the other hand, are just as nasty, but since it's Knight Templar kind of nastiness, and the mainstream angels are not actually good, they retain their position in the official hierarchy.)
  • Misfile: Technically Rumisiel is a fallen angel, or at least a semi-fallen one since he has been banished from heaven on a temporary, with a distinct prospect of it becoming permanent, basis. He's rather eager to clock up some karma points to get back in though.
  • The Non-Adventures of Wonderella: Penumbra's biological father Penume is one of these. He got kicked out of heaven for teaching mankind how to read and write.
    Penumbra: I fail to see anything evil in teaching humans to write.
    Wonderella: Well, you don't read online comments. I kinda see the logic here.
  • Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal pokes fun at this, claiming that Hell is actually a pretty nice place because angels, fallen or otherwise, aren't very good at torturing people.
  • In Sluggy Freelance: "Meanwhile in the Dimension of Pain", fallen angels turn into demons. As in, angels who fall over. They apparently get a demonic appearance with no angelic traits. It can be used by angels to temporarily turn into demons for the purpose of fooling demons, but in the climax of the angelic invader story arc, that invading angel instantly succumbs to the dark side after falling, apparently because just Being Evil Feels Good even if you haven't done anything yet.

    Web Original 
  • Monster Girl Encyclopedia: This is what happens when angels get corrupted by succubi. At first it just twists their logic, thinking that sex is proper reward for good deed. They still think that they're doing holy work, rewarding good-doers with pleasure using their body. Eventually, however, they will realize their own desire and fully transform into dark angels.
  • New Vindicators has plenty of these, going by Judeo-Christian influences. There were two Falls-the Fall of Pride, when Lucifer lead a third of all the angels into a failed rebellion and were cast out into hell; and the Fall of Lust, when Samael and some of the Gibborim fell to take human brides. This plays a huge part in the story, because when the seven fallen who were Seraphim (also known as just the Fallen) have children, they are called Nephilim, humans with superpowers able to wield Hellfire. In turn, children of Nephilim are Neo-Sapiens, the setting's equivalent of mutants. In addition, the plots of the seven Fallen are very important-five of them plot to usurp Lucifer's throne, and Samael, the one good guy among them, who fell for Love and not Lust, seeks to counter their moves.
  • Wingspan: The main character is a fallen angel.

    Western Animation 
  • All Dogs Go to Heaven
    • Charlie technically spends all of the first movie as one, as he'd been let into Heaven and used his watch to return to life with the warning he'd never return, but he manages to earn his way back in.
    • Carface becomes this in two, having been let into Heaven via the same loophole as Charlie in the first movie but selling out to the demon Red. This becomes a plot point when Red needs an angel to find Gabriel's horn, as Carface no longer qualifies.
      Carface: But I'm an angel!
      Red: Not anymore! You work for me now!
    • Implied with Belladonna from The Series. She's Anabelle's (an angel) cousin and responds to Anabelle's pleads with Charlie to 'think of Heaven' with 'Heaven? Been there, done that', implying she was once an angel. Incidentally, most of her plans involve manipulating Charlie to become this trope.
  • Courtney is one from Dead End: Paranormal Park. She and the other fallen angels are didn't do anything bad—they just happened to have the bad luck of their halo breaking so they were sentenced to labor for all eternity, 'with a lunch break every 500 years'.
  • Invoked for metaphorical purposes in Gargoyles. In medieval Scotland, Goliath's love went by the pet name he gave her- Angel of the Night, or just Angel for short. Fast forward a thousand years, and "Angel" has become the Big Bad, now calling herself Demona. Later, Goliath and Demona's daughter is introduced, and the fact that she's named Angela only reinforces the symbolism.
  • Hazbin Hotel
    • The opening explains that Lucifer used to be an angel (more specifically, a seraphim) who was banished to hell as punishment for giving the fruit of knowledge (and free will with it) to Eve and thereby accidentally leading to the creation of hell, where he is now forced only to experience the worst of mankind for all eternity.
    • It is later revealed that Vaggie also used to be an exorcist angel who was crippled and cast out by Adam and Lute when she couldn't bring herself to exterminate a child.
  • Princess Luna of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic was one of a pair of Physical Goddesses who ruled Equestria and were responsible for the rising and setting of the sun and moon one thousand years ago. When Luna perceived the fear and ingratitude with which her subjects looked upon the nights she worked so hard to create, her envy got the better of her and she refused her older sister's requests for her to lower the moon and end the night, having been twisted by dark magic into the vengeful "Nightmare Moon," forcing Princess Celestia to seal her away in the moon for the next thousand years. Mercifully (considering that eternal night would have meant the extinction of all life in Equestria), the actions of the main characters in the series premiere upon Nightmare Moon's return strip her of her dark powers and evil personality, and upon expressing her regret, Luna is promptly forgiven.

 
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Vaggie's Past (SPOILERS)

Adam reveals that Vaggie used to be one of his top Angel Exterminators before being banished to hell for sparing a demon child

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