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Metatron: Oh, get over yourself, will you? I couldn't rape you if I wanted to. Angels are ill-equipped. (lowers his pants, revealing he has no genitalia) See? I'm as anatomically impaired as a Ken doll. You bottom-feeders and your arrogance; you think everybody's just trying to get in your knickers.
Dean: I thought angels were supposed to be guardians. Fluffy wings, halos — You know, Michael Landon. Not dicks.
Castiel: Read the Bible. Angels are warriors of God. I'm a soldier.
Angels in fiction tend to be of a vaguely Abrahamic nature, and may or may not have big fluffy feathery wings and/or Holy Halos. If they get things wrong enough, it may result in them becoming earthbound fallen angels, or, worse still, turned into demons (as per Paradise Lost, of course. Or, you know, Medieval tradition in which Demons are just the Angels that sided with Satan against God). They generally are found doing God's will as part of some sort of grand plan, or helping mortals, sometimes incognito. May be able to fall in love with a mortal and give up their Angelic nature.
There is a traditional celestial hierarchy of angels, which comes from an early Christian writing by one "Dionysus," into the following nine "Choirs", of which only the first and last two are commonly seen in art and literature:
- Angels — These are the ordinary inhabitants of Heaven; if something needs doing on earth, these are the guys who generally do it.
- Archangels — Of whom there are seven, three of whom have very familiar traditional names: Raphael, Gabriel, Michael (names for the others, such as Zadkiel, Uriel, and Ithuriel, don't seem to have caught on — angelic names, by the way, traditionally tend to end in "-el", as in "Azrael", the Angel of Death, or "Israfel", the Angel of Music (no, not that one)). Each archangel is the head of one of the remaining upper choirs.
- In the Eastern Orthodox Church, there are seven major archangels; however, other than the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael the names of the others vary radically. Also the arrangement of the choirs and the status of archangels vary. It Christianity, archangels often embody a particular function or idea: for instance, Raphael is the archangel of Healing, Raguel the archangel of justice and Jegudiel of politics.
- Principalities — Traditionally bear armor and swords, and watch over rulers and nations.
- Powers — Carry flaming swords and chains to bind The Devil; serve as guardians. In Christian tradition the Angel with the Flaming Sword in Eden was one of these, the Archangel Jophiel.
- Virtues — Traditionally wear armor and swords. The previous three choirs form the bulk of the heavenly army.
- Dominations — Wear crowns; represent God's power.
- Thrones — Hold up God's throne. They're said to be two interlocking chariot wheels. Chariot wheels. On fire. They are bringers of God's justice and represent his authority (and badassery).
- Cherubim — (singular Cherub) Tend to be depicted in blue, or as blue; represent God's knowledge and act as soldiers and guardian angels. St. Gabriel is Head Cherub. In The Middle Ages, often misunderstood to be a single angel named "Cherubin". In The Renaissance, the Putti, chubby little children or even a chubby face between two or more wings, were later confused with Cherubim (or even Seraphim, as in this painting
 ◊ by Ghirlandaio).
- Seraphim — (singular Seraph) Traditionally six-winged, red, and fiery; represent God's love. Satan used to be one of these (hence his six wings in Dante's Divine Comedy). The reason they have six wings is to cover their true form, which is so bright and glorious that merely witnessing it grants a one-way trip to Heaven... at the cost of bodily incineration. Their chief is St. Michael.
Angels and Demons are generally closely linked with the whole overall theology/cosmology of a setting; thus, the wide variation.
The prospective Angel has many options available for customization:
- What is their morality? The most common way of varying things. Given that Angels are usually messengers or servants of God, God Is Evil tends to come into full play here; if an Angel can ask Have You Seen My God or is part of a Council of Angels, expect confusion over what is and isn't in His best interests.
- Are they Winged Humanoids? Although now standard, this depiction is actually a relatively recent idea. In their earliest appearances in Jewish and Christian art and literature angels either appear human, full stop, or else they look like some sort of Cosmic Horror - six wings, four faces, a wheel of fire with eyes lining the rim - you name it. They didn't traditionally introduce themselves with "Fear not!" for nothing.
- Are they actually Supernatural? Sometimes, in a Sci Fi or Atheist setting, or a Fantasy Kitchen Sink, Angels are not actually supernatural, merely confused for such; whether this is intentional on their part feeds into Morality, above, and whether they are Jerks.
- Are they jerks? Regardless of whether they're supernatural or moral, sometimes Angels are portrayed as jerks, to keep with a Crapsack World or World Half Empty setting. It may occasionally overlap with Light Is Not Good, but often most people take a direct Dark Is Evil aproach at describing evil angels. Fallen angels, if portrayed as good, are always within the Dark Is Not Evil realm.
- How 'human' are they? If the author is trying to make a subtle point, or wants to go in for some Cosmic Horror, they can make the Angels, regardless of what they look like, be in some way fundamentally inhuman in their thinking.
- Can they fall from grace? And if so, do they become Demons, Fallen Angels, or can they become human? If a central character is an Angel, expect an answer to this one; otherwise, tends to be left vague.
- How mysterious are they? Very
Sub Tropes include: Shinigami ("death angels") Not to be confused with Lovely Angels, which are just adventuresome women.
Compare Our Fairies Are Different.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- The Neon Genesis Evangelion angels take this to an extreme. The first few are skyscraper-sized humanoids, but then they descend into multi-eyed beasts, abstract shapes, formless...things, and, unbelievably enough, one that's easily mistaken for a human being.
- However it should be noted that angelic beings are generally absent from the Japanese cultural canon. Perhaps the closest thing Japan has to the western concept of an "angel" is tenshi, but the Evangelion angels are not called that - instead everyone calls them shito, which loosely translates into "messenger". Since Angels are themselves known as "Messengers of God" it's a reasonably accurate translation that fits within the context of the story. Whatever the hell it actually is anyway.
- Since the show never bothers to explain just what the heck an Angel is until the movie, this troper thought at first they were just aliens. Even then its still not entirely clear where these Angels come from, how they can start Third Impact, or even why there's only 18 of them. Hopefully the new movies will make it clearer.
- Its greatly explain in the Classified Information, but basically the Angels were born from Adam during Second Impact, and each Angel can be considered a parable to a whole species, hence why humanity, born from Lillith is the '19th' Angel.
- Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan: Holy crap, these are not the angels you expected! They'd be cuter if they stopped maiming/killing Sakura-kun.
- Angel Sanctuary — Where they do drugs, have reincarnated incestuous lesbian relationships, and brainwash people through video games.
- Also, some have disabilities, some are born with only one wing, Metatron is a perpetual infant, and Rosiel doesn't just go batshit insane; in the end, he starts aging backwards and decaying in the first place. Also, Rosiel's beauty is because he removed Alexiel's skin and grafted it onto his own body. Let's face it, Rosiel is about as far into WTF territory as you can get.
- Digimon: One of the Great Angels is a giant pink bunny. It's apparently based off of Cherubim, since well, Cherubimon. Angemon and Angewomon evolved from the Ridiculously Cute Critters in Adventure and 02. And MarineAngemon... So Yeah.
- Marine Angemon's name actually comes from sea angels, which are floating seaslugs with wing-like flippers. Most of the angels in Digimon are pretty blond Winged Humanoids, while most Fallen Angel Digimon are black-clad Winged Humanoids with really sharp claws. The Angemon and Devimon "family" are quite large, mostly consisting of advanced, female, or Pallette Swapped versions of the original, with the number of wings increasing with the level of power. (Lucemon may look like a child, but he's got 12 wings to Angemon's six, and is not a nice guy. This is the part where you run away.) Cherubimon's the exception to the rule. If they become corrupt, they evolve into fallen-angel counterparts. Oddly enough, the fallen angels outnumber the regular angels, thanks to Evil Is Cool.
- There's also an Angel-type digimon that is a gigantic, pink, angelic Longcat. Considering that Digimon supposedly have their origins in old Internet data that gained sentience, this may be an in-joke of some kind...
- Funnily enough, the Angel-type mon seem to be one of the most powerful types overall- Angemon manages to single-handedly destroy a Big Bad that the rest combined couldn't touch, and he only digivolves into MagnaAngemon right near the end of the series- and destroys another Big Bad.
- Magna Angemon, although only an Ultimate-Level digimon, seems to be able to fight on even grounds, or even with an upper hand, against Mega-Level digimons like Piedmon and Black War Greymon. Unfortunately, his Mega-level form, Seraphimon, didn't seem to be too much of an upgrade, or at least didn't have as much Crowning Momentof Awesome.
- The Angels of Mnemosyne appear to be a total aversion of the traditional angel archetype. They're former male humans who have had a time spore put into them, have flesh-like wings and monstrous features (including gold eyes with red sclerae), work for the Big Bad who considers himself to be a God, but are monstrous creatures that continually hunt the immortal women of the story in order to consume their time spores. However, right at the end of the series, Rin ingests Tajimamori's angel time spore and sprouts feathery wings when she takes over as the protector of Yggdrasil.
- Archangel/ cherubim Jophiel from Lucu Lucu is... somewhat different, as in: four faces, arms and wings. Plus he's essentially immaterial spirit who has to posses mortals to be able to stay in mortal plane. Though, of course, this is how cherubim were described in the Bible.
- In Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, angels are called Ancients. They were the original inhabitants of the world, and can take various shapes, from the typical Winged Humanoid (Michel) to the Small Annoying Creature with a human head and halo who otherwise looks like a bird (Fuku). It's implied that the Winged Ones, who are all winged Petting Zoo People and sometimes act as other mythological creatures (vampire, fairy, etc.), are also Ancients from a certain point of view, but the species as a whole is given the stereotypical characteristics of angels.
- Earthian's angels oversee Earth in pairs from their place on Eden. Each pair is made up of an angel who gives humans (also called "Earthians") positive points for good deeds and another angel who gives them negative points for bad actions. If the total point tally ever reaches 10,000 negatives, the angels will destroy Earth. The angels are classic light-haired and white-winged humanoids, with the exception of one of the main characters who has dark hair and wings like those of Lucifers, or fallen angels. They're also forbidden from having same-sex relations, which creates a quandary for the two very male main characters.
- The angels of Ah My Goddess are Winged Humanoid Cute Mutes, except when singing — or at least the audience can't hear their speaking voices. They serve as the personifications of goddesses' souls. They also hatch from minuscule eggs.
- Angels in To Aru Majutsu No Index appear to mostly be decent/lawful neutral guys, but if separated from Heaven, they will go absolutely berserk in their attempts to get back, capable of incredibly powerful destruction. On top of that, immense power, flight, very orderly ways of thought such as some guy brought me to Earth -> I want to go home -> Kill original spellcaster -> can't find him -> Go home the more destructive way, which happens to involve destruction along the lines of nuclear war.
- In Shattered Angels, they come in the form of "Absolute Angels," a 4-girl strong race of genetically created superhumans capable of turning into a mecha style combat power armour or just transmorificating parts of their body into different parts of the mechas. Also, they feed by absorbing life force from normies through a kiss and are each a warrior-slave to a member of the douchebaggy Ayanokojo family, except Tarlotte who's more of a daughter to her Ayanokoji.
- In the anime version of Chrono Crusade, Father Remington claims that he's "not unlike an angel", leading many fans to speculate that he's a fallen angel. (He's shown to live over a century, so there's something up with him.)
- In the Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne Manga, angels are the souls of strong people in Purgatory (sort of, since Heaven's actually a nice place). They can't consciously remember their human lives and are only allowed to be reborn in human form if they manage to gather enough sacred energy for God. Those who waste their sacred energy, though...
- Technically not a case in point, but each Gundam in Gundam 00 is named after a type of angel. Are your angels over 15 metres tall, amoured all over, and armed with the most advanced weaponary ever conceived?
Comic Books
- In the vampire comic book Crimson, angels are invisible but tangible winged humanoids with odd tattoos. People with special goggles can kill them so they can eat them, as angel blood gives a narcotic effect. If an angel disobeys orders, they're demoted into a mortal, but if they live out a good human life they can ascend to being an angel again after death. The archangel Michael thinks he's in charge of them all, but he and the other archangels aside from Satan are total assholes, and God is really pulling all their strings for benevolent reasons. Satan is the only one who realizes this and seems content at the situation.
- Preacher: Fitting right in with the comic's views on religion, angels are not shown in a very flattering light. Two in particular are singled out as being ineffectual middle management types and chinless wonders. When one of them tries to dazzle Jesse Custer with the glory of the Heavenly Host, he is immediately told to "cut the shit."
- So far, we've seen two classes of angel as they appear within the universe of the Hellboy comic, neither of which really fit the well-known winged humanoid archetype. The Grigori, or Watchers, which look more or less like human skeletons on fire & the Seraphim, which apparently resemble giant grubs with black mask-like faces & wings made from flayed human skin.
- Ghost Rider features Nobel Kale, who becomes an angel when he's in hell! (On Earth, he's just a spirit who posses people.)
- The Johnny Blaze version of the Ghost Rider later rewrote the evil demon trapped inside Johnny into a misunderstood angel that had basically snuck in when he sold his soul. Also there are evil angels, particularly, you know, Zadkiel.
- There seem to be three kinds of angel in The DCU:
- Standard angels. Zauriel from Grant Morrison's Justice League Of America is one of these (and so, according to the most generally accepted of his four origin stories, was the Phantom Stranger). Wings, flaming sword, humanoid but inhuman looking. Divided into four "hosts": Man, Bull, Eagle and Lion. Zauriel of the Eagle Host was technically a fallen angel during his time with the League (he was a guardian angel who cared too much about the woman he was guarding), but not as fallen as his arch-enemy Azmodel of the Bull Host, who was working with Neron.
- Earth-born angels. Earth-born angels are formed when someone sacrifices themselves to save someone without hope, causing the two to merge together. There are three Earth-born angels; the Angel of Fire, the Angel of Love and the Angel of Light. During the run of the Peter David Supergirl title the Angel of Fire was Supergirl (who manifested flaming wings and enhanced heat vision), the Angel of Love was Comet (who had icy wings and emotion manipulation) and the Angel of Light was Blythe (who had glowing wings and could project light ... and was working for a demon called the Carnivore).
- The Spectre. The personification of God's Wrath is often referred to as an angel, but it's not clear where he fits in. One interpretation (based on Neil Gaiman's orginal Books Of Magic mini) is that he's one of the original archangels who made a really stupid, not necessarily evil, mistake when the world was young and God wants him to work it off. Current continuity has him as an aspect of God given independent existence, outside of the standard angelic hierarchy, with his fellow aspects of God (like the Radiant) as peers.
- The Mind Screwy Warren Ellis Hellstorm series introduced the Asura, AKA the Assassins of Heaven, typical Winged Humanoid angels who prove Light Is Not Good by fanatically trying to stamp out free will, figuring that to be the source of evil. They later get Retconned as a race of bird-people (of which several exist in the Marvel Universe) altered by magic, rather than actual angels, and the "God" they follow as the arch-demon Chthon trying to eliminate the competition, or something.
- Bill, the Angel of the Lord in Proposition Player, looks less like an angel and more like a freakishly muscled mafia legbreaker, who tries to scare the protagonist into giving up his attempts to get into the soul business and who generally abuses his position as a henchman in the most powerful religion for petty reasons like sex. (He apparently sent a guy to hell just so he could take his girl, and tries to force a minor goddess into having sex with her.) His boss Michael furthers the mafia stereotype; he arranges for the casino to explode and kill many of the people who sold their souls, and tortures the protagonist's girlfriend. He even delivers a short lecture on certain aspects of torture at one point. And he wears barbed wire under his clothes.
- Johnny The Homicidal Maniac has a few weird ones, ranging from vaguely humanoid things with no ears & goggles built into their heads to angel bunny things that are less beings in their own right & more part of the scenery of Heaven. Also features a Throne that trades the flaming wheel look for that of a spindly technorganic monster... with a recliner on his back.
- The angels in Sandman are mainly warriors. The exception is cherubs which are balls of light that communicate in emotions.
- To elaborate, Remiel and Duma (angel of silence) are shown as two blonde, half naked winged Bishonen whose feet "never touch the impure ground". They ended up ruling in hell, with...mixed results to say the least. They are also pretty gay.
Film
- One of the protagonists' original complaints about the title character in Michael is that they "thought they were cleaner". Michael, being an archangel (and one of God's Storm Troopers), cheerfully indicates that he's "not that kind of angel".
- Here Comes Mister Jordan and A Matter Of Life And Death feature heavenly messengers (angels by another name ) who are really, really, really bad (like Misfile level bad!) at picking souls up from earth at their time of death. In the former they are too early and the latter too late.
- Played rather bizarrely in the second Futurama movie "Beast With A Billions Backs", where what appear to be Angels turn out to be mindless birds. That look exactly like Winged Humanoids wearing robes. And live on the back of a sentient planet that inspired Fluffy Cloud Heaven, and pick parasites off its skin.
- Hellboy 2: The Angel of Death. To say that this angel is very weird is a massive understatement.
- Guillermo del Toro apparently based her on Mexican angel paintings which depict them as having eyes on the wings (maybe the biblical weird looking angels weren't forgotten after all...). Also doubles as a Dark Is Not Evil example as being at worst neutral and by having the wings coloured black.
- Or possibly AN Angel of Death, as she specifically states that she's Hellboy's Death.
- See the above quote regarding the angels in Dogma.
- Really messed around with in substantial ways in the trilogy of films commencing with The Prophecy. Written/directed by Russell Mulcahy (the original Highlander) and starring Christopher Walken as a very disenchanted Archangel Gabriel, it suggests that whilst Lucifer (Viggo Mortensen no less!) rebelled because he didn't like God, another portion of angels rebelled because they didn't like the idea of man being more important than angels, and that the war between the loyal angels of God and the rebels has kept heaven's gates closed against even the souls of men getting there. Your Mileage May Vary, of course, but some sections of this film rated as both a Mind Screw and Nightmare Fuel to This Troper as a result. The series possibly borrows more from the Islamic version of angels than the Christian one, which indicates that Satan rebelled after being told to bow down to mankind (with Satan and Gabriel having been switched for the purposes of this film.) The angels attitude towards humans are made clear by Lucifer's characterization of them as "talking monkeys" and by Gabriel's diatribe to Thomas.
Gabriel: I'm an angel. I kill firstborns while their mamas watch. I turn cities into salt. I even, when I feel like it, rip the souls from little girls, and from now till kingdom come, the only thing you can count on in your existence is never understanding why.
- Constantine uses the Winged Humanoid variety with the archangel Gabriel, who turns out to be quite the jerk. However, Gabriel is not an angel in the purest sense; since Angels and Demons of the purest degree are not permitted on Earth, the angels seen in the film are deceased mortals imbued with Divinity as a reward for good works during life.
- So, the Ganriel in this movie isn't the famous archangel. Just a dead Christian woman, who happened to be named Gabriel.
- In City Of Angels, the angel protagonist falls in love with a human woman and decides to become human to be with her after hearing the story of a former angel who's now a happily married mortal. Then she dies, and he either commits suicide or becomes an angel again, depending on your interpretation of the ending.
- City Of Angels is a remake of Wim Wenders' far superior Wings Of Desire. There's a lot of Adaptation Decay in the American version.
- The angels of Angels In The Outfield and related films fit the standard good-guys-with-wings image, as befits a feel-good kids' movie. They are repelled by foul language, being pure and ethical in all respects ... except, it seems, for cheating at sports, which is perfectly okay if they're the ones doing it.
- The Prince Of Egypt has The Angel of Death. This is perhaps one of the few Western Animation examples of an angel that is far away from the Winged Humanoid stereotype; it appears as a glowing smoke Eldritch Abomination that descends from the sky from what appears to be an interdimensional hole (yep, there's no doubts its a Cosmic Horror). This, as well as its job (to kill every firstborn in Egypt that isn't an Hebrew) can easily be seen as a reason why the movie sticks to biblical tradition
- The 1950's had a strange opinion on angels, as fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans are aware, often portrayed as middle management and salesmen. See: Once Upon a Honeymoon (1956), Out of This World (1954), and so on.
- The trailer for the upcoming movie Legion appears to show Paul Bettany as a gun toting, asskicking rebel angel trying to keep the rest of the angelic host from exterminating humanity.
- Depending on the viewer the film is either So Bad Its Good or So Bad Its Horrible (personally I'm in the first camp, largely because I adore Bettany and he at least did a good job in the movie, even if hardly anyone else did). Most of the angels aside from Gabriel and Michael are different—they possess humans and basically use them as shock troops in an attempt to kill a baby who's hinted to be Jesus 2.0. Also, Gabriel slices things up with his wings, which is a pretty neat effect, though I would imagine getting eviscerated by razor-edged angel-wings would not be the most fun way in the world to go.
Literature
- In David Almond's Skellig, a boy who moves to a new house discovers an angel in the crumbling garage. Said angel is trapped behind furniture, covered in dust and dead bluebottles, his wings confined under a tattered suit coat; it's unclear how long he's been there, or how sane he is. In the end he proves himself a benevolent guardian, curing the heart condition that threatens the protagonist's baby sister, before disappearing from the derelict house he shares with a few dozen owls.
- This troper was under the impression that Skellig was not an angel, but some sort of evolved owl-man. It was, of course, left very open to interpretation, though.
- Similarly, it is implied that the titular character of What Happened to Lani Garver is implied to be a "floating angel," which is sort of an ambiguously gendered asexual teen guardian angel. This issue is never really resolved in the book
- In Terence Blacker's The Angel Factory, Thomas Wisdom discovers that a number of humans on Earth, including his parents, are actually angels created by an alien race. They don't have wings or supernatural powers, but they're more predisposed than "imperfect" humans to be good and kind, and their creators from above believe they are the key to stopping mankind from destroying itself. In the end, Thomas rejects their offer to run things on Earth, and all the angels living on Earth gradually become human.
- Meljean Brook's Guardian series features human beings who were saved and given some angelic powers, wings, etc. and hang around in a heaven-like area. They can elect to move on to the beyond or Fall back to being a human again.
- Neverwhere has the angel Islington who pretty much fits the angel stereotype: divinely beautiful, unfailingly kind and caring, and frequently associated with light. On first impression, that is. Let's just say that there's a reason why Islington's in a secluded room in London Below and not in Heaven with the other angels: he's Ax Crazy.
- In Simon R Green's Drinking Midnight Wine, angels are impossibly different and indescribable unless they are fallen, in which case they are distinguishable from humans only by their Nigh Invulnerability. Memorably described as God's Storm Troopers.
- And in the Nightside series (which uses the same cosmology, like all Simon R Green's books) the second book Agents of Light and Darkness has the angels of heaven and hell duking it out in the streets. Casualties among the innocent bystanders are high, and there's no obvious way to tell which side a given angel is on. Also, some who see the angels too close up turn to salt, like Lot's wife in Genesis.
- Though not an "angel" per se (actually "a singular cherubim," and no, that's not an error), Proginoskes from Madeleine L'Engle's A Wind In the Door matches Ezekiel's idea of an angel: a composite of wind and flame at its heart, extending into dozens of immense wings and myriad, blinking eyes. (He finds it easier to not be corporeal at all, and scorns the human idea of "little pigs with wings" of what cherubim should look like.)
- By contrast, the seraphim and nephilim in the later book Many Waters are more like what a contemporary audience would think of as angels, being winged humanoids, but correspond to "the sons of God" as described in Genesis 6:4 rather than current stereotypes. The seraphim are basically servants of God on earth and usually have eyes and wings coloured in some variant of gold, silver or white. The nephilim, which are implied to be fallen angels, have eyes and wings of more vivid colours like red and violet. They are all immortal, but the nephilim are trapped on earth where the seraphim can return to heaven. Nephilim are male and enjoy sleeping with human women and fathering children on them; seraphim are androgynous and celibate (although they sometimes fall in love). Also, each one has an animal form he can change into.
- C.S. Lewis provides one of the more original examples in his Space Trilogy. Angels, or eldila (singular eldil) are beings whose bodies are purportedly made out of light, and occupy a different state of matter, moving with respect to the universe (rather than with respect to the planet's surface). They occupy a different 'speed' or state of matter, having no precise location. Human eyes can barely detect them as shimmers of light, only allowing themselves to be seen for what they are when the purpose serves them.
- The Oyéresu (singular Oyarsa) are more powerful beings that control the nature of each planet in the solar system. Although most are benevolent and love their subjects, the Oyarsa of Thulcandra (earth) is clearly Satan and, unlike the others, is actually trapped within the moon's orbit to prevent further harm. The Oyéresu, like the eldila, have no genders but some have masculine and feminine identities. Furthermore, they have the ability to manifest themselves as they choose; at the close of the second book, the Oyeresu of Mars and Venus manifest as white, fiery giants.
- Further complicating the picture, the Oyéresu, as described in That Hideous Strength, have a sort of shadow presence on each planet, which seems to act more or less independently. These are the "gods" that some Tellurians have reportedly met.
- The short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez features Exactly What It Says On The Tin. The "angel", as he is referred to by the villagers who find him, is an old, flea-infested, wrinkled man with no teeth and crippled, barren wings. He could be injured, ate food (albeit mashed up as he couldn't chew), did not recognize men of the cloth, and spoke in a strange tongue. Note that the whole point of the story is the question of whether the man was really an angel or not.
- Good Omens has the angel Aziraphale whose most noteworthy actions include giving away his Flaming Sword to Adam and Eve, befriending the demon responsible for tempting them, and working to avert the Apocalypse against his superiors' wishes. In short, he's the not-as-holy-as-he-should-be angel who's Not So Different from the not-as-evil-as-he-should-be demon Crowley.
He's also specifically stated to be a principality:
"Technically Aziraphale was a Principality, but people made jokes about that these days."
- His Dark Materials — Angels aren't really divine higher powers (though they like to tell you they are)! They're actually self-aware incarnations of the Applied Phlebotinum that feed off sentience and powers the universe. They can either just spring into existence or, a ghost, with the help of another angel, can rise to angelic status. They die, have immeasurably long lifespans, and envy humans for our bodies — angels have no real bodies, so they cannot experience real sensations. And sometimes they're very, very gay.
- Debatably gay, since they don't really have genders and there's nothing inherently sexual about Balthamos and Baruch's relationship.
- They appear in the books as translucent, winged humans but this is simply for the convenience of humans, and because human minds are too tiny to comprehend their true appearance; their real forms are described as being somewhat like architecture.
- Nails from The Lonely Winds claims to be his cousin G.R.’s guardian angel. Once an ordinary mortal, he insists he has been "sent back" on a mission even he does not fully understand, now with powers that make him a Flying Brick.
- This Troper pities that you all are unlikely to be familiar with Siewca Wiatru, a Polish novel that turns the world of angels into a very interesting take on a standard fantasy world.
- The Maiar from JRR Tolkien's Middle-earth (Lord Of The Rings, etc) are functionally angels (a step below the godlike Valar and two steps below creator god Eru) are incorporeal spirits, but are able to take on any physical form they choose to. None of them follows the usual feathered-wings-and-halo motif; Gandalf, the Balrog, and Sauron (and possibly the dragons and giant eagles) are all Maiar. Of course, the Balrog is a pretty traditional demon. They marry, usually each other; Melian is a maiar who married an elf-king named Thingol and became the mother of Lúthien, the ancestor of the lineage of Elrond, Arwen and Aragorn.
- In Weaveworld, the nigh-omnipotent entity Uriel claims to be an angel. It's probably wrong.
- Cynthia Leitich Smith's Eternal. Guardian angels go on to a new charge when their old one dies, and might just fall in love with them. And they can be temporarily made human, kickstarting the romance. Which can even happen if their beloved is no longer in their charge and has become a vampire - and yes, vampires are satanic. Forbidden lovers anyone? ( the girl involved manages to redeem herself and die before her vampire nature destroys her soul completely. It's Better Than It Sounds and a bittersweet Tear Jerker.)
- The littlest girl, Angel, in Maximum Ride is blonde with blue eyes. She can fly(with pure white wings), read minds, control minds, talk to fish, breath underwater, transform, and fight as well as Max, the strongest member and leader of the Flock.
- In Laura Anne Gilman's ''Retriever" series angels are just one of many nonhuman races known as the Fatae although they're among the oldest and most powerful. They are also (by reputation, the only one actually met is dead at the time) a race of Jerkasses.
- Angels in Stationery Voyagers are VERY different from their common portrayals in most church art. They don't have wings, they don't dress in robes, and they only assume human form to a degree that is needed to avoid overwhelming any given Mortal's fragile mind. The angrier they are, the less they care about looking human. Their skin is usually "elephantine" in color, rather than looking human. They have strobe eyes and lightning hair. Only Ferrymen carry swords. The others prefer to use energy blasts from their hands. They come in several classes, but only five of these classes are ever relevant: Nullifiers (Power Negation, especially against Wizards,) Ferrymen (Teleportation, Angels of Death,) Communicadrim (power bestowal, preventing confusion, keeping DNA from disintegrating,) Guardians (keep you from dying in car accidents,) and Defenders of Natural Order (Keep humanity from growing too tolerant of things like incest and bestiality, along with encouraging environmental responsibility.) Most of the time, they dress in very modern-looking armor, complete with helmets that make them look like Faceless Mooks. Don't EVER push your luck with them! It doesn't end well. And that's not even getting into the evil ones...
- Angels in Sharon Shinn's Samaria series are genetically engineered from human stock, have wings and can fly and are the only ones who can call upon their god to grant such things as weather control, healing medicine, or holy lightning which are actually particle beam wweapons since "god" is actually a spaceship orbiting the planet.
- While Harry Dresden tends to have to deal with the more demonic side of the supernatural spectrum, he's also encountered Archangel Uriel twice now in the books (and been given the ability to use heavenly Soulfire). We also know that Archangel Michael personally gave out at least one of the three swords to the Knights of the Cross.
Live Action TV
- In Highway To Heaven, angels look just like humans. They do have supernatural knowledge and are implied to be able to teleport and use telekinesis (in the first episode, an Angel uses this to cause a car to break down to give him a lift; how very angelic). They wander the Earth or at least middle America, doing good deeds.
- This is carried over to Touched By An Angel, though the titular angels do get an inner light when they're being particularly inspirational.
- Highway To Heaven is a prime example of Did Not Do the Research. The series promulgates the popular misconception that angels are what good people become after death. One of the virtues of Touched By An Angel is that the producers and writers know angels are an entirely different species of beings, who have never been human and only take human form to interact with people on Earth. The writers of that show also demonstrate familiarity with the Bible, as illustrated by many allusions slipped into the dialogue.
- The Vorlons in Babylon 5 pretend to be angels of the big fluffy wings variety, but they are really just Sufficiently Advanced Aliens.
- They have the neat trick of appearing to "less advanced" species as their archetypal holy messenger, thanks to a few tens of thousands of years grooming (read, genetically manipulating) new species. So to humans at least, they look like fluffy-winged angels. (Though to species they haven't "groomed," they are effectively invisible.) This is a telepathic effect however, and not their true form.
- Obligatory Doctor Who examples. The stone angels from "Blink". Stone beings who look like angels, move faster than you can...er...blink and will throw you into the past so they can eat your life energy. Also the Hosts from "Voyage of the Damned" which are angel shaped killer robots.
- Yeah, those don't count, what with them not being angels and all. A better example is Light from The Ghost Light, an immensely powerful alien that's almost immediately mistaken for an angel by Ace.
- Supernatural just got into the game by introducing Castiel (an angel of Thursday apparently) who dragged Dean out from Hell. Glimpsing his true form will burn your eyeballs out, so, like demons, he has to use a human host. Unlike with demons, it takes a special person to be an angel's vessel and they have to consent to the takeover. He also has a "true voice" which creates an effect like a sonic boom. He and his fellows can apparently be killed and he has proven capable of getting pissed off about lack of respect and willing to threaten people in response. His partner Uriel is quite blatantly racist towards humanity, calling us 'mud monkeys', an attitude Castiel warns is close to blasphemy. Castiel is also very, very pretty.
- Turns out being an angel isn't much fun either, being forced to follow orders from a god only four angels have ever seen not being able to get involved in worldly affairs without orders but only to watch. They can also fall from heaven by removing their grace.
- Also not much fun for angels: While Castiel is supposed to be watching out for Dean, liking him? Big no-no. He gets severely demoted when his superiors think emotions (which he isn't even supposed to have) are clouding his judgment. Come on, he just thinks Dean's a nice guy.
- They've also raised Offscreen Teleportation to an artform, using it in place of traditional flight powers.
- In the HBO miniseries Angels In America, an angel visits Prior to herald him as the Prophet, complete with fluffy white wings and Holy Backlight. Then she strips him naked and copulates with him before telling him that humans must "stop moving" so that God will lose interest in Earth and return to Heaven. Prior, dazzled at first, comes to realize that this is not a feasible solution and wrestles with the angel until she allows him to climb up to Heaven to make his case for humanity in front of a Council Of Angels.
- In Charmed there are Whitelighters, essentially guardian angels who help and advise witches. Their wings are strictly metaphorical: although they never manifest any actual wings, having their powers revoked by the Council of Elders is referred to as having their "wings clipped". Normal Whitelighters are always shown to be dedicated servants of good, but their bosses, the Elders, are generally distant at best, and at least one becomes a Well Intentioned Extremist and the Big Bad of the sixth season.
- Battlestar Galactica: Old Series — alien beings of light that travel in a ship of lights and oppose Count Iblis. New Series — Baltar's vision of Six and Six's vision of Baltar are angels. And also demons. According to Ron Moore, they're the same thing. Kara may be an angel of another sort altogether, in human form to lead them all to their end.
- The X Files episode "All Souls" uses the seraph version. Handicapped girls are turning up burnt to death in a small town; it turns out the girls are actually nephilim, and a seraph's revealing his true form to them so that they can get whisked off to Heaven before the Devil comes calling.
Radio
- Two angels appear in the first episode of Season 7 of Old Harrys Game as moronic middle-management types who have been assigned to oversee the Earth because God's grown bored with it. They're terribly pleased with their positions (and name badges!) but much to Satan's frustration, don't actually have the authority to decide anything, and won't pass messages on, because God asked not to be disturbed. Satan relocates their name badges somewhere they'd be difficult to read.
- Later episodes feature Gabriel, slightly higher up the chain-of-command, but just as powerless, and a bit of a crawler. God leaves him in Hell in the final episode.
- Previously in Season 3, we met three angels including a different Gabriel (his name was actually Graham, but it got mistranscribed). They were very excited about God's new punishment which was even worse than Hell, and looked forward to finding a reason to put Satan there. Graham was also responsible for the Fall, having asked Satan to have a word with God. They abandoned this plan, when Scumspawn said that he would be sure to say at the trial how assiduously they had investigated Hell, spending hours watching the demonic orgies. Angels don't have sex, but apparently they can wish they did.
Tabletop RP Gs
- Dungeons And Dragons has multiple species of "celestials", which can be broken down into categories such as angels, guardinals, eladrin, and archons. They're generally considered the servants of good-aligned gods.
- More specifically, angels (aasimon) are direct servants of the gods and asuras are angels who left the service of the gods for various reasons (they're still, generally, good people, but they don't take crap from anyone). Archons, guardinals and eladrin are incarnations of lawful, neutral and chaotic good respectively; they don't serve gods but rather their own leaders, although they often do help them out when asked. Demons follow a similar (but inverted) setup, although there is curiously enough no infernal counterpart to the angels themselves.
- In the newest editions, all celestials are now Angels, who exist as different types but all share some common features (no mouth or facial features except for eyes, at least a pair of wings and a genie-like wispy tail instead of legs). Eladrins are just relatives of elves, and Guardinals have yet to appear, whereas Archons are the equivalent of angels, but for the Elemental Primordials (they look like faceless elemental soldiers with armor). Angels serve all Gods, and can be good, unaligned or evil, though some gods have other servants (Asmodeus favors devils for example).
- In Nomine has no less than seven major types of Angels (called "choirs"), and two minor types. Some of these are practically humans with superpowers, while others are so alien that they consider the "human condition" something akin to a disease.
- The "angels" (if they can still be called that; they sure think they can) of Demon: the Fallen are split up into seven celestial Houses, based on which day of creation they had a role in (for instance, the Rabisu, responsible for the sixth day and all the creatures of the Earth, have control over animal life, plant life, and flesh). Actual angels have disappeared from Creation by the time the game begins, as has God.
- Perhaps Angels aren't as gone as you might think, depending on your Storyteller. One sidebar (and thus optional) in the final book gives stats for genuine blessed-by-God angels: a slight alteration from the standard Demon stats for thematic reasons, with the ass-kicking stats pegged at eleven.
- The New World of Darkness features the qashmallim of Promethean The Created. Despite the fact that the books make it very clear that they are not angels, they can take any number of forms (including Biblical-style renditions such as a man with four faces or a flaming chariot), they have powers that are Biblical in scope (such as calling down a rain of fire or turning a person into a pillar of salt), and they're made of the "Divine Fire" that powers the universe and act in service of a guiding force known as "the Principle."
- Just to be confusing, the books also make it very clear that they are angels. Sometimes in the same sentence.
- Mage The Awakening has Angels as being the inhabitents of the Supernal Realm of the Aether (where the Arcana of Forces and Prime originate) and are divided into the choirs of Seraphim (for Forces) and Cherubim (for Prime). The Seraphim are described as being powerful and furious, often manifesting in forms of wild, powerful energy, while the Cherubim are more patient and wise, often manifesting in gentler, softer forms. All angels are said to be forces of righteousness with high moral standards, although their particular view of morality can be sometimes a bit alien. The sample Cherubim are the Ophan (a nude, feminine figure, completely white and hairless and covered in hundreds of closed eyes which blaze with a blinding, blue light when open) and the Beast Keeper (a multi-armed, solidly-built masculine figure who has constantly shifting animal features). The sample Seraphim are the Metatron (described as a towering humanoid being of pure fire with countless wings constantly folding and unfolding behind it and constant electricity sparkling around it) and the Elemental (a being which can manifest as a pillar of fire, a ball of heat and light, a beast constructed from magma, or a swirling torrent of water). The other suggested angels have forms ranging from the typical (humanoid beings made from energy, burning bushes) to the unusual (a rubber ball constantly ricocheting off of surfaces, a structure made from marble and glass suspended in orbit) to the particularly alien (which greatly resemble the Angels from Evangelion).
- Also from White Wolf, Scion's equivalent of angels are the Hands of Aten. They are bad.
- The Living Saints of Warhammer 40000 are chosen vessels of the God-Emperor's might, and meet all of the criteria for being angels. However, these angels are known for wielding flaming chainsaw-swords and declaring they will purge the land... monumental ass-kicking tends to ensue whenever one shows up.
- Except the whole "chosen of the Emperor" could easily just be misunderstood tech and warp powers derived from the belief of the rather zealous SoB.
- The living saints are Demigods. The real 'angels' of the setting are a million strong army of 8 feet tall, fanatical super soldiers. So Yeah...
- Sanguinis is perhaps the closest thing to an actual angel; son of a Physical God, feathery wings, totally bishie, and pretty nice for that universe. But in his death throes, the Space Marines made from his genetic material were afflicted with a propensity towards madness, and a thirst for blood...
- A creature type in Magic The Gathering, the most famous of which is the classic Serra Angel. While most are under the domain of White, there are other more atypical ones such as the Maelstorm Archangel and the Platinum Angel. And of course, Black has its share of Fallen Angels.
- The Savage Worlds setting of Winterweir has the Celestials. A bunch of angry Ascend To A Higher Plane Of Existence former humans who believe in the total domination of all beings through orderly stability. They manipulate religions to think of them as divine servitors.
- There is a german rpg named Engel (Angel) where you play ... angels.
Video Games
- A solar (basically an angel, and coincidentally someone you do not want to mess with) serves as Mister Exposition in Baldurs Gate II epic level spellcasters can also summon celestials.
- A deva (a lower-ranking angel) also plays a major role in Planescape Torment. His sobriquet of Trias the Betrayer says all you need to know, really.
- Shadow Hearts: Two optional boss battles are perverse versions of Seraphim and Cherubim, and then the ultimate fusion/Bonus Boss Seraphic Radiance takes this to new heights.
- The World Ends With You has Angels that are, well, mysterious, to say the least... their nature and hand in events are only really gone into in the postgame content. Even then, all but the "lowest tier" is described to be completely incomprehensible and non-physical to humanity.
- In the Devil Children subseries of Shin Megami Tensei, angels are robotic, slightly humanoid creatures and are total Knight Templars who massacred a bunch of creatures for playing in a casino.
- In general, the angelic hierarchies of Shin Megami Tensei tend to look like the Winged Humanoid archetype, often wielding weapons and shields. Of note: Virtues are creatures composed of blue light with a shimmering crimson heart; Thrones are rather evil-looking, gray-skinned and black-robed humanoids with no wings, but bound to an eternally-spinning wheel; the Trumpeter from the Apocalypse is a winged skeleton. Most named angels and archangels like Raphael, Uriel, and Michael, have skin and hair of inhuman color, and Gabriel is explicitly female. The highest-order angels, Metatron, Sandalphon, and Melchizedek, are robotic.
- The Angels (as in the lowest order) are your standard blonde female winged humanoid, only blindfolded and wearing bondage gear. Yes, they're hot, yes it's This Troper's signature demon in the mmorpg, (which is probably being advertised at the top of the page).
- This◊ is the angel in question. Thank you Kazuma Kaneko.
- In the first Persona, Judgement Azrael, the Angel of Death, looks more like a winged piece of modern art than anything even remotely resembling "living thing," let alone "human."
- Lucifer (yes, that one) has two forms: an impossibly beautiful, six-winged human with horns... or a towering abomination with midnight-blue skin, fangs, talons and barely humanoid look. Satan's true form is even worse: an indescribable mess of leathery wings, tails, and assorted body parts, Alien-like head, too many breasts to count, and insectoid legs.
- In the Devil May Cry universe, demons with white-and-gold coloration (and usually feathers) are sometimes referred to as angels, usually by people convinced "angels" are the good guys. In DMC3:SE Vergil's katana is especially effective against such enemies due to Elemental Rock Paper Scissors.
- Tales Of Symphonia has two different stages of angel cosmology — pre-spoilers, and post-spoilers. Pre-spoilers, the Chosen of World Regeneration becomes a Winged Humanoid angel after awakening all of the summon spirits and regenerating the world. Post-spoilers, becoming an angel involves using a parasitic stone to absorb one's soul from one's body. The angels try to reincarnate the "goddess" (actually the Big Bad's Dead Little Sister) by Body Snatching the various Chosens emptied this way and eventually intend to turn all people into soulless angels to stop Fantastic Racism.
- Arguably, the Naaru of World Of Warcraft. They look a bit like a winged, haloed man made out of geometric shapes (though it may only be me). Their abilities seem to be limited to giving mortal races the powers of Paladins, and they seem quite unconcerned about who gets it.
- As for the unconcern, it turns out in the resolution of the Burning Crusade storyline that they are using the Blood Elves as part of a massive Xanatos Gambit to lure and destroy Kil'jaeden. As opposed to the uncaring, unchanging Titans, the Naaru are portrayed as unambiguously Good, albeit somewhat aloof.
- Unambiguously good, except for the fact that they are one half of an entity's lifecycle-in the other half, they are Void Gods, beings of absolute shadow and darkness. Funnily enough, there is only one, raid boss, Void God, and it turns back into a Naaru afterwards. We're never given a chance to fight a Naaru and see if it happens in reverse. Oh, and one Naaru consumes the souls of the orc dead to fuel its reawakening.
- The angels of the Diablo franchise. Their most notable variation is that instead of feathered wings, they have tendrils of light extending from their backs. They wear armor and cloaks and their faces (which are actually just harmonic resonances) are always in shadow. One novel adaptation of the series claims that they are not physical, but more made up of light and sound. Personality wise, the series generally portrays them as dicks. They are more into order than good, and they care little for humans except as a tool to fight demons, with a couple of exceptions being introduced so far.
- Since, for the most part, the angels in Diablo were manipulated by the three Prime Evils into a doomed extremist plan to try and stop the overwhelming and corrupting (even to angels) forces of hell, it is possible angels in Diablo are not as bad as they seem.
- Diablo 3 seems to be playing up the World Half Empty nature of the franchise for all it's worth.
- While he's not actually stated to be any kind of angel, Jak's Superpowered Good Side in Jak III' uses light powers to heal and sprout massive radiant wings. This being a later Jak game, Jak's "angelic" form has Glowing Eyes Of Doom and usually an extremely large gun.
- Legacy Of Kain vampires started out as angelic beings before they were cursed with blood thirst & immortality.
- Riviera The Promised Land has Grim Angels, which look somewhat like anime versions of the stereotypical "humanoids with wings" angels. They function both as messengers of the Gods, and those that pass down the gods' judgments, leaving their morality in somewhat of a gray area in the game...particularly when the head angel they're taking orders from turns out to be the Big Bad.
- Angels have been the traditional ultimate unit of the Human factions of the Heroes Of Might And Magic series since the third game. Their upgrade, the Archangel, boasts impressive speed, toughness, attack power, and the ability to resurrect troops once per battle. In the fifth game, angels and archangels are female and wielding humongous swords; the Darker And Edgier alternate upgrade, the Seraph, wears red clothing, has blood-stained wings, and ditches resurrection in favor of calling down the wrath of
God Elrath (Dragon of Light) on enemies.
- Angels first appear in the 2nd scenario of the first campaign of the third game. A little town called Fair Feather, otherwise completely undeveloped, had so far resisted Kreegan invasion attempts thanks to the one thing it does have: a Portal of Glory (the Angel summoning building). After getting control of Fair Feather (which can happen in the first two turns), the scenario becomes a Curb Stomp War in your favor.
- It can assumed that the Angels of the pre-HOMMV games (including just plain Might And Magic) were... not all that supernatural that they might appear: Word Of God stated that if you thought the Devils were bad, you'd find the truth of the Angels even worse - and those Devils are Alien Invaders.
- In Aion you start your character's life by ascending to become essentially an angel of your race's gods.
- Bayonetta's angels and demons are less about "Good" and "Evil" factions and more about "Light" and "Dark" and the unspoken agreement to try and not kill each other and mortals enough to cause an imbalance. Beyond that, it can be inferred that the angels are as much liars and tricksters as demons, under all that polite, self-righteous veneer. At first glance they have all the marble skin, gilded armor, and glowing halos of light (and choral accompaniment). Beat them up, and all that falls off, leaving horrible monsters with dripping juices, exposed muscle tissue and eyes where they probably shouldn't be.
- In the final level of the first Kingdom Hearts, there's a breed of angel-like Heartless. That's right, heartless with big, white wings and halos, using the light-based spell "Holy". They are still evil and trying to devour your hearts though.
Webcomics
- In Slightly Damned, angels are white-haired humanoids who serve a benevolent god and are said to be inherently good. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen, and though the two main angelic characters are both definitely heroes there are suggestions that angelic society is imperfect. They have classical Elemental Powers, wear colour-coded uniforms, and have been at war against demons for centuries.
- Misfile has so far given us two Pointy Haired Boss angels, one atoning for the (unauthorised) destruction of a city, one whose behaviour is more representative of a succubus and a total drunk who got kicked out of heaven for being stoned. It's no wonder God has abandoned them. They are all of the Winged Humanoid variety, but can hide their wings to blend in with humans. They also have pointy ears like those of an elf, but people other than Ash and Emily can't see them. They're also all White Haired Pretty Boys and girls.
- Angels from Dan And Mabs Furry Adventures are simply another race of Creatures in Furrae. They have feathered wings and a proficiency with light magic as opposed to the Demons' bat wings and talent for dark magic. Angels aren't a strictly "good" race either; they value power and influence as much as the greediest demon (though there are undoubtedly individual exceptions). Oh, and they're also slowly dying out for some reason.
- The one angel in Reliquary resembles a skeletal corpse with flamelike wings and huge, black claws.
Web Original
- The angels in The Account, a podcast audio drama, haven't shown much of themselves, but they're universally acknowledged as bad news in the Midlands, where the story takes place. Earth, which is separate from the Midlands, seems to be the only place they have very good PR.
- The Angyls from The Shape of the Nightmare to Come. While the Gods of Chaos are served by Daemons, the Star Father, a God of Order, is served by the Angyls who are androgynous, faceless, glowing humanoids with dozens of razor-feathered wings who seek to create a universe of perfect, self-defeating order.
- Considering that the premise of The Salvation War is essentially a Rage Against The Heavens (and Hell in the first book), angels are the official enemies of humans in that universe. They fit the classic Winged Humanoid model and serve Yahweh, who's shown to be a colossal and self-conceited Jerkass. It's implied that they use the humans in Heaven as power leechers or something similar, and that their power is dependent on organized singing in some way. Of particular note is Michael, the military commander who has his own ulterior motives regarding the war against humanity, and Uriel, a powerful angel who has the ability to induce living creatures to simply drop dead (though his effectiveness on humans has diminished noticeably over time). Oh, and angels aren't invulnerable; they can be gunned down or blown up for a veritable shower of white and silver blood.
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