"We are the Emperor's will made flesh. We are taken from the dust. We shed our weaknesses, our frailty, to become...Angels."
— Captain Orpheo
Angels of Death is a CGI animated show for Warhammer+. It is set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
The story follows a group of Space Marines of the Blood Angels chapter. Stranded on a star system during the aftermath of the Great Rift, a squad of Blood Angels descend upon a war-torn planet in search of their captain, where they discover that the inhabitants are not who they appear to be.
It was announced that a second season is at works, along with a prequel series called Angels of Death: Origins.
The show provides examples of the following tropes:
- Always a Bigger Fish: The Sword of Baal is a gigantic and heavily-armed strike cruiser, capable of decimating an entire flotilla by herself. But in Episode Four's prologue, she's positively tiny compared to the Tyranid Hive Ship tearing apart an Imperial fleet. Multiple vessels focus fire on it and the Master of Ordnance says they "didn't even draw blood".
- The Astartes mow through genestealer cultists and pure-strains, and while the aberants are a challenging surprise, eventually they overcome them (But not without losses). The fully awakened and pissed-off Patriarch, though? Their bolters don't even hurt it and it bats them around like cat toys for most of the fight. Only one of them survives the fight, and it took falling to the Black Rage to mortally wound the monster.
- An Arm and a Leg: Captain Orpheo loses half of his left arm during his fight against the genestealers. Due to his space marine biology, he doesn't bleed out. Later on he loses his left leg, too. Brother Melchior loses his left arm during a genestealer ambush.
- Artistic License – Military: In-Universe. Although Solken is given her correct title of "Shipmistress", she is also referred to as a captain. The top ranking officer of a space marine vessel is referred to as "Shipmaster/mistress" in order to avoid confusion with the similarly named space marine rank.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: As she is making her way to the orbital lift, Castia-Theta-9 stops and takes a bit of time to analyze a wounded Genestealer Hybrid before she kills it with her laser eye.
- BFG: Brother Tiro is the squad's devastator marine, and he carries with him a heavy bolter. Sustained fire from it is enough to demolish a marble pillar ten feet wide.
- The Cameo: Mephiston appears in Episode 4 where he gives Kazarion counsel before the latter leaves for the Deathwatch.
- Co-Dragons: The Magus and the Primus serve as this to the Patriarch. The former is the psychic and spiritual center of the genestealer cult, as well as communing withe the dormant patriarch. The latter is the martial leader of the cult's armies, coordinating its rebellion and pursuit of the Blood Angels.
- Continuity Nod: As he's speaking with Kazarion about the Black Rage, Mephiston makes mention of "Calistarius". Calistarius was Mephiston's former name before he succumbed to the Black Rage and took his current name after managing to overcome it.
- Cursed with Awesome: All the Blood Angels are proud of their superhuman abilities and lineage, honored to be able to serve their Imperium, the Emperor, and genefather as semi-immortal warriors. They're also keenly aware that the flaws in their bloodline - the Red Third and the Black Rage - mean that eventually they will degrade into howling berserkers trapped in the genetic memory of their father's final battle and death. It might take decades, centuries, or millenia, but it will happen, and they all know it.
- Cyborg:
- Servitors are lobotomized humans transformed into mindless cyborgs generally used for menial tasks and, at times, combat. Magos Castia-Theta-9 is a techpriest of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and as a standard practice has replaced most of her biological body parts with mechanical replacements. She notably has a cybernetic laser eye.
- When it is shown that Captain Orpheo survived, it is revealed that Magos Castia-Theta-9 had replaced most of Orpheo's body-parts with cybernetics. This was done to save him from death after sustaining severe wounds during his battle against the genestealers.
- Defiant to the End: Out of ammo, one-armed, menaced by a Dreadnaught-sized Patriarch, Melchior responds by throwing his empty gun at its face. Then when it picks him up, he punches it with his remaining fist until it bites his head off.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The series is almost entirely colored in black and white, with the only other color present being blood red.
- Destination Defenestration: Ancaeus throws the Genestealer Magus from the tower's inner sanctum window and to her death. We actually see her bloodily colliding with a statue of the imperial aquila, symbolizing the imperium's triumph.
- Disney Death: Kazarion is seemingly killed by the Broodlord in Episode 9, but the final episode begins showing that he had in fact survived.
- Due to the Dead: When the squad find the bodies of the Terminators who accompanied Captain Orpheo, one of them expresses disgust that they are just left lying in the muck, declaring that such a fate is undeserving for an archangel. The final episode has Kazarion retrieving the bodies of all the fallen before leaving the system for Baal.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Before exiting the system, Kazarion condemns the planet of Niades to Exterminatus and bombs the city to oblivion.
- Evil Plan: Magos Castia-Theta-9 reveals that after the Genestealer Cult had taken over the planet of Niades, they awaited the coming of their "Gods", the Tyranids. However with the emergence of the Great Rift, the Tyranid Hive Fleet could not arrive, leaving the planet stranded in the grip of warpstorms, with the cultist's population slowly dwindling out. The cult then enslaved several astropaths and forced them to message any ship with promises of safe harbor, but in actuality would kill or infect the ship's crew, intending on sending the infiltrated ships to other worlds to infest once the warpstorms have calmed. By the current events of the series, several dozens of imperial ships have been infested with genestealers and cultists.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: Melchior's weapon of choice was a flamer that he used to deadly effect. During a Genestealer ambush, Melchior's battle against a genestealer aberrant causes his weapon to explode and taking off one of his arms in the process. He uses a bolt pistol from then on.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: The Sword of Baal and it's crew are stranded in the Niades system due to warp storms caused by the Great Rift. When the ship's navigator informs ship mistress Solken of a gap out the system, the Blood Angels contemplate on whether to search for Captain Orpheo (who had gone to the planet's surface and has gone missing) or leave him behind to immediately return to Baal. Kazarion wishes to search for their captain, whilst Ancaeus insists that their duty to Baal and the safe delivery of stored gene-seed takes a greater priority. It is only when the ship's comms pick up Orpheo's signal do the Blood Angels descend to the planet's surface in search for their captain.
- Godzilla Threshold: By episode 8, the Sword of Baal is nearly overrun by the genestealer cultists. With the enemy forces too great to overcome, Techmarine Hadrael awakens the dreadnought, Lord Ignis, to battle.
- Giant Mook: When the astartes prove to be a difficult foe to kill, the genestealer primus unleashes genestealer aberrants upon the Blood Angels. The aberrants are a hulking but dim-witted strain of genestealer (considered by the genestealer cult to be "impure" amongst their kind) who dwarf even the astartes, and prove themselves to be far deadlier enemies than the cultists.
- The Heavy: The Genestealer Primus and Magus serve as this to their "father", the Genestealer Broodlord, as it slumbers in hibernation. The Primus also serves as this to the Magus, as whilst the latter remains in the tower guarding the Broodlord, the Primus personally leads the cultists to battle the Blood Angels.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: The fate of the Genestealer Primus during his climactic duel with Orpheo, in which Orpheo cuts him in half with his power sword.
- Hive Mind: All genestealers and cultists are connected via a broodmind. The Magus and Primus are frequently shown communicating telepathically.
- I'm Cold... So Cold...: Severely damaged and his chassis breached, the dreadnought, Ignis, states that he feels cold. He muses that after centuries interred in his chassis, he never thought that he would feel anything again.
- Kill Tally: Tiro, the devastator marine, has several tally marks carved onto his heavy bolter.
- Mutual Kill: Ancaeus manages to slay the Broodlord, but dies in the process. Narrowly averted in the case of Orpheo and the Primus, with the former being mortally wounded to the point he requires interment in a dreadnaught. The latter... less so.
- Never Found the Body: When the Blood Angels reach Captain Orpheo's transmission coordinates, all they discover is his power sword and severed hand. Ancaeus remains hopeful that Orpheo may still be alive, whilst Kazarion expects the worst. Rafael declares that until they find a body, Orpheo's fate remains uncertain.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The Blood Angels were fully prepared to sacrifice themselves in hopes of destroying the Tyranid Hiveship. However, when news from Lord Commander Dante himself reaches them and are ordered back to Baal to defend it against the Tyranids, they are forced to leave the Forge World they were defending to it's fate. They do so with the knowledge that billions of people will be devoured by the Tyranids, as well as the loss of industrial assets and armaments.
- Off with His Head!: Brother Melchior has his head bitten off by the Genestealer Broodlord in episode 9.
- Sanity Slippage: As if the case with all Blood Angels and their successors, several of the Astartes struggle with the creeping influence of the Black Rage. Those moments when they hallucinate being in the place of their genefather Sanguinius, fighting the Arch-Traitor Horus at the Siege of Terra, thousands of years ago. When emotionally compromised enough, they can completely lose themselves to the illusion, fighting harder and faster but with little semblance of lucidity. While stalwart Chaplains like Rafael and bonds of brotherhood and duty can hold it back, Chief Librarian Mephiston offers this bleak summation:"Our gift is a curse delayed, and nothing more. There is the blood, and there is nothing else."
- Skull for a Head: As is the standard uniform of a chaplain, Rafael's helmet is shaped like a human skull.
- Spotting the Thread: When Kazarion's squad are greeted by a troop of guardsmen who offers to bring them to the tower, Kazarion notices that the leader's teeth are all pointed. Knowing that the guardsmen are hostile, Kazarion almost immediately shoots the leader's head in a gory mess.
- Squishy Wizard: When cornered, the Magus unleashes a psychic attack upon Ancaeus. Although she manages to hold him at bay and even damage him, Ancaeus wades through the attack and restrains her. At this point, the Magus can only futilely strike the heavily armored Blood Angel and spout defiant words before Ancaeus throws her out of the tower to her death.
- Suicide Mission: "Tempest" has Captain Orpheo intending to board a Tyranid hive ship and destroy it from the inside, even though the effort will likely lead to their deaths. With the Sword of Baal's munitions running low and the hive ship having already destroyed several imperial ships whilst suffering little damage, Orpheo believes the effort to be worth the risk. However, news of Lord Dante's order to return to Baal's defense prevents him from carrying out the mission.
- Taking You with Me: When the cultists overrun the Sword of Baal's defenses, Captain Solken orders the activation of the ship's self-destruct protocols, declaring that if Hadrael is unsuccessful in releasing the mooring clamps, then she will not allow the cultists to use the ship for their nefarious purposes.
- We Can Rebuild Him: This happens twice to Captain Orpheo. The first being after his first encounter with the Genestealers, where he is outfitted with cybernetics to save him from his mortal wounds. The second is after the final battle, where is is seemingly killed in the aftermath, only for the epilogue to reveal that Hadrael had managed to save Orpheo and interred him in a dreadnought chassis.
- Whole Episode Flashback: The 5th episode, "Tempest", serves as a prequel episode that explains how the characters came to the Naides System and the reason why Captain Orpheo went to the planet's surface.
- Year Outside, Hour Inside: When the Sword of Baal exits the warp after being caught in the Great Rift, they discover that a few years have already passed, even though they were stranded for only more than a month. Captain Solken is baffled by this revelation, whilst Captain Orpheo is unsurprised as he is already aware of the time altering effects of the immaterium.
- You Have Failed Me: Although she doesn't kill him, the Magus does chastise the Primus for his repeated failure to eliminate the Blood Angels and allowing them to ascend to the tower's inner sanctum where the Broodlord slumbers.
