Good Angel, Bad Angel: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Bettajdbka.jpg|link=The Simpsons (animation)|frame]]

 

When someone wrestles with a temptation, two miniature versions of himself, an Angel and a Devil, sit on each shoulder and try to pull him in different directions. The Devil will invariably be on the left (or [[A Sinister Clue|sinister]]) shoulder. Sometimes, like in ''[[Full House]]'' ("The Devil Made Me Do It"), the Angel and the Devil are full people in the room rather than miniatures on shoulders.

 

 

A more modern version might include multiple additional characters, based on modern [[Hollywood Psych|pop-psychology]]'s understanding of a person's mind. For example, the inner child, the feminine side, or the gay side.

* One anti-marijuana PSA had a kid with his pothead friends appearing on one shoulder, and authority figures on the other. More of each kept popping up, until both shoulders were loaded.

* Seen in an ad for TruMoo chocolate milk, to promote that it has "no high fructose corn syrup" and healthy ingredients. A mother asks "What's the bad news?" and the "bad angel" is forced to admit "I got nothing." "He's got nothing" comments the good angel and the bad angel disappears in a puff of red smoke.

 

* ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]''

** There's a Good Angel, Bad Angel scene in its first episode which culminates in "Good Excel" blowing away "Bad Excel" with a huge pistol (''"The bullet of Justice caps Evil's ass!"''). Good Excel later gets hauled off by teeny-tiny little Police Excel for murder, while Excel herself is confused and strangely philosophical.

* There's a scene in ''[[NEEDLESS]]'' where Blade tries to hit on a [[Wholesome Crossdresser|currently-crossdressing]] Cruz, only for Cruz to remind him he's a boy. Blade's angel and devil appear, and both tell him that gender doesn't matter, as long as he's cute.

 

* In ''[[Tank Girl]]'', Satan offers the eponymous heroine beer in exchange for a powerful artifact: God's Housecoat. Her shoulder angel argues that the Devil is a rotten bastard, while her shoulder devil tells her to take the beer. {{spoiler|She takes the beer, but uses God's Housecoat to cause its next wearer to put all of his energy into charitable causes. When we next see the Devil, he is participating in a televised run for charity to raise money for a children's hospital.}}

* In ''[[Finder]]'', an AI's angel and devil are represented by a one and a zero.

* ''[[Tintin]]'' has these appear to Snowy and Haddock on different occasions (most often prompted by the presence of whiskey).

* Guy Gardner of [[The DCU]] had a Good Angel and a Bad Angel appear at one point when he was facing an unconscious [[Power Girl]] (which is to say, facing a once-in-a-lifetime chance to cop a feel).

* ''[[Johnny the Homicidal Maniac]]'' takes this to a strange place, as there are three major voices talking to him, that comprise about half the supporting cast. These are Psychodoughboy, voice of depression and self-destruction, Mr. Fuck, voice of violence and destruction, and Nail Bunny, voice of reason (or something approximating it). This seems more a metaphor for horrible, horrible, manic depression as much as anything else, although it just keeps getting weirder.

** And then there's Reverend Meat, to whom Johnny plays the voice of opposition himself.

* The ''[[National Lampoon]]'' did a number of comic-book stories based on Doug Kenney's high school/college life. One of them is the basis for the ''[[Animal House]]'' reference below - his shoulder angel probably doesn't help his case by calling Doug by his nickname "Four-Eyes".

* In [[Deadpool]]'s Team-Up with Machine Man, Deadpool experiences this with the angel being represented by his current partner (Machine Man) and the devil is being represented by the Puppet Master, who they were currently fighting. [[Cloudcuckoolander|True to his character]] (as well as Machine Man's partially) Deadpool pictured the angel as a drunk spouting off boring robot logic which quickly devolved to binary code speak.

* Once in German comic ''[[Rudi]]'', they're fighting whether he should take up smoking again or not. (His buddy Freddy started it again, we see, because his five or so shoulder devils mashed up his shoulder angel.)

* [[Dori Seda]] had them in her autobiographical comic. With the devil wearing a leather corset and stockings.

 

=== Fan Works ===

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'': The floating heads of [[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody|Zack and Cody]] are this to Tristan. He calls them his [[Imaginary Friend]]s. Both are chaotic, and have trouble deciding which is which. Zack gets killed off.

 

** The first sequence is good because Kronk's angels are just as dumb as he is: instead of refuting Shoulder Angel's arguments, Shoulder Devil simply replies "look what I can do!" and does a one-handed headstand. Kronk's not impressed.

{{quote|'''Shoulder Angel:''' [[Chewbacca Defense|No, no, he's got a point.]]}}

** In the series, all characters had little Kronks on their shoulders.

* In [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney's version]] of ''[[Pinocchio (Disney film)|Pinocchio]]'', Jiminy Cricket is hired by the "Blue Fairy" to act as Pinocchio's conscience. Note that "Jiminy Cricket" has the same initials as "[[Jesus]] Christ". This is intentional, as at the time this was the [[Gosh Dang It to Heck|acceptable replacement term.]] Pinocchio's own stupidity... er, naivete... meant he didn't need a devil. In [[The Adventures of Pinocchio|the book]], he killed the cricket with a hammer, and its ghost came back to haunt/annoy him.

* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: At World's End'' gives Jack Sparrow two smaller Jacks that appear to come out of his hair. Instead of the traditional good and evil, the dilemma is between rum and immortality without rum, at least until they point out to him that having rum once every ten years for eternity is still more rum than having it every day of a normal lifetime. He also has less traditional hallucinations that are his size and identical to him, as well as one that is part of Davy Jones' ship.

** Hilariously spoofed in an alternative dub of the movie made in Russia. Two mini-Jacks introduce themselves as Jack's conscience and egoism. Then they start giving him advice:

{{quote|'''Bad Animal:''' DRUMS!

'''Good Animal:''' NO DRUMS! }}

 

=== Literature ===

** The Omnian priest The Quite Reverend Mightily-Praiseworthy-Are-They-Who-Exalteth-Om Oats has two voices in his head which he thinks of as the Good Oats and the Bad Oats. That is: ''one'' of them thinks of ''itself'' as the Good Oats who encourages living properly and devotion to Om and the other as the Bad Oats who gives him impious and improper thoughts; but the ''other'' one thinks ''it's'' the Good Oats who encourages being sensible and thinking logically, and the other one's the Bad Oats that just wants blind obedience to the church. In the end, he's able to get them to work together at last.

*** The witch Agnes/Perdita Nitt has the same issue, although in this case it's between the kind, clear-headed Agnes and the sassy, dare-devil Perdita.

* In an [[Older Than Feudalism]] example, [[Plato]] in ''[[Phaedrus]]'' describes the psyche as composed of a [[Power Trio]]: a light horse, proud, noble, and good-intentioned; a dark horse, crippled and malevolent; and the charioteer who must keep rein on both. [[All Psychology Is Freudian]], but Freud is, apparently, a copycat.

* [[Deconstructed Trope]] in ''[[The Screwtape Letters]]'', where the title character is writing instructional letters to Wormwood, who is a literal version of the shoulder devil. The Tempters are highly organized, with a training college, middle management, and harsh punishments for devils who fail to corrupt their "patients." At one point, Screwtape orders Wormwood to subvert this trope by impersonating the good angel and arguing with the other angel over who actually is the one giving good advice.

* Referenced in ''[[Paper Towns]]'' when Quentin is blackmailing a classmate into paying for the bikes his friends wrecked.

{{quote|"I understand that you do not control Chuck and Jasper. But you see, I am in a similar situation. I do not control the little devil sitting on my left shoulder. The devil is saying, 'PRINT THE PICTURE PRINT THE PICTURE TAPE IT UP ALL OVER SCHOOL DO IT DO IT DO IT.' And then on my right shoulder there is a little tiny white angel. And the angel is saying, 'Man, I sure as shit hope all those freshmen get their money bright and early on Monday morning.' So do I, little angel. So do I."}}

** The second book reveals that Heaven is operated by a [[Celestial Bureaucracy]]. Hell then decides to adopt this system, forcing Pharmason to fill out and submit multiple reports in triplicate every day.

* In ''[[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'', when Jim is telling Huck's dad's fortune, he says that there are two angels at his side: a good, white one at his right shoulder, and an evil, black one at his left.

 

=== Live-Action TV ===

* On ''[[Just Shoot Me]]'', Finch is confused when only his Bad Angel appears, and the latter explains that he is too depraved to even have a Good one.

* ''[[Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide]]'' has Ned trying to decide whether to cheat on a history test—and miniature versions of Benedict Arnold and Abe Lincoln stand on his shoulders to argue the case. (Arnold's argument quickly devolves into crude jokes about how ugly Abe's hat is.) This was a result of a machine designed to put information from his history book directly into his brain blowing up.

** In fact, in a later episode he talks about the machine saying something along the lines of "That thing brainwashed me. Now whenever I have a moral dilemma, Abe Lincoln and Benedict Arnold appear on my shoulders."

* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' has an episode where Lister's two internal voices (his Confidence and his Paranoia) becomes actual people thanks to a mutated disease.

** And Rimmer got to do the rare, full-on "all virtues vs. all vices" version on a moon where [[Your Mind Makes It Real]].

* Neatly used in [http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=212888&title=Provinces-in-Peril this] clip from ''[[The Daily Show]]'', in which the 'live on location' screens are gradually used to turn Samantha Bee's report on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to dissolve the Canadian Parliament rather than face a vote of no-confidence into a battle between John Oliver (who is English) as the pro-Monarchy "angel" and Aasif Mandvi (who is Indian) as the pro-Independence "angel" over whether Queen Elizabeth II should remain Canada's Head Of State, with Bee the confused and indecisive Canadian trying to decide which argument to pick. {{spoiler|Oliver wins by promising a Royal Visit.}}

* Played for laughs in the ''[[Beetleborgs]]'' episode Buggin Out.

* [[P!nk]]'s song "Stupid Girls" has a little girl debating between following her expected gender role, and going outside to play football. P!nk plays both a devil and an angel on the girl's shoulders to represent each of these.

 

* This trope actually originates with Greek mythology, wherein each mortal has a pair of spirits, which are aspects of themselves, and represent good and evil and actually sit on the character's shoulders. The angel/devil interpretation, however, according to [[The Other Wiki]], originated with Islam in the form of ''kiraman katibin'' (literally, "honorable recorders"-their job is to write down a person's good and evil thoughts and deeds).

* The myth of [[Classical Mythology/Characters|Hercules]] at the crossroads is a pre-Christian version of the scenario in which the hero makes a choice between [[Anthropomorphic Personification]]s of vice and virtue.

* An anecdote often attributed (falsely) to Native American legend says everyone has a good wolf and an evil wolf battling in his or her heart. The winner will be the wolf that the person feeds.

 

 

=== Puppet Shows ===

* Used in an episode of ''[[Muppets Tonight]]'', with Seymour and Pepe pretending to be Jason Alexander's good and bad conscience in order to convince him to do an act with Gonzo. [http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Psychomachia And some other episodes].

 

* This trope is supposed to date back to the early morality plays just before the development of theatre and Renaissance drama. Each morality play would have a Guardian Angel / Good Angel and a Guardian Devil / Bad Angel speak to the everyman main character.

* Used in the 16th century play ''[[Doctor Faustus|The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus]]'' by [[Christopher Marlowe]]. Marlowe actually calls the characters Good Angel and Bad Angel in the script.

* This appears late in [[William Shakespeare]]'s Sonnets and is interesting in that his Devil seduces the Angel. While it's not literally presented as them being on his shoulder, and the Angel and Devil represent the Young Man and the Dark Lady, respectively, it is carried out in much the same way as a classical Psychomachia.

** Mentioned rather directly in the Shakespeare play ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]''. [[Plucky Comic Relief|Comic relief character]] Launcelot Gobbo soliloquises about continuing to work with Shylock, and refers to his conscience on one shoulder, and the fiend on the other.

 

=== Video Games ===

* The preview trailer for ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]] 2'' has a scene where two female characters walking behind Cole are shown at an angle evoking shoulder angel and devil. Over his left shoulder is a biker girl egging him towards destruction while over his right is a federal agent urging him to restore order.

* [[Team Fortress 2|The Pyro]] has this as a Misc. Item: The Cremator's Conscience; they are in a chest pocket. Description: "'Burn him with fire!' 'No Burn him with fire, then hit him with an axe!'"

 

=== Web Animation ===

'''Angel Strong Bad:''' I know, I know... just let it go. You gotta pick your battles. }}

* In ''[[The Annoying Orange]]'' episode ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C41IBSKGF4w Cruel as a Cucumber]'', Orange wants to get Cucumber to [[Ho Yay|like him.]] Angel Orange and Devil Orange both pop up to give him advice, but both of them just suggest telling Cucumber lame puns. Angel Orange's suggestions are nicer, though.

 

=== Web Comics ===

** And then [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2012-03-15 all four]. Note how Nurture changed post-Awakening ("[http://mobile.twitter.com/dantheshive/status/180337748576698370 It's either an indication of Susan's development as a character, or I thought it would be neato.]").

** Later, [http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1867 Vamp Sarah] and [http://www.egscomics.com/?id=1869 Flying Purple Unicorn Riding Catgirl Sarah], arguing over a [[Collectible Card Game]]. And here we thought ''Susan's'' mind was a strange place.

* ''[http://www.wanderingchaos.com/uc/043007.html UC: Deviating from Normality]'' started playing with this trope, and twisted it in a side story.

* ''[[Dragon Tails]]'' once spent [https://web.archive.org/web/20110103232046/http://www.dragon-tails.com/comics/archive.php?date=030111 a week's worth of comics] tearing this trope a new one.

** When Frank finally activates his [[Super Mode|Artemis]], it has two different colour schemes, echoing the opposing colour schemes of his Good Angel and Bad Angel.

* [http://www.jaynaylor.com/betterdays/archives/2004/09/chapter-10-brot-14.html This] ''[[Better Days]]'' strip. Add in a... Zen Angel, or something.

* In the ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' webcomic ''[[UG Madness]]'', Dominic's shoulder devil tells him to use all sorts of powerful cards reviled among casual gamers. His shoulder angel is no help at all, being a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] with [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny]]

* An ''[[Ugly Hill]]'' comic has Hastings' shoulder angel and devil arguing with one another about whether or not Hastings should cheat on his wife with a woman he met in a bar. Hastings reveals himself to be drunk, and the shoulder devil exclaims "He's wasted! I win by default!"

* The sci-fi comic ''[[Outrim]]'' has Prudence's shoulder beings (representing Reason and Emotion instead of Good and Evil) [https://web.archive.org/web/20140607153514/http://outrim.comicdish.com/index.php?pageID=39 too polite to disagree].

* Subverted in ''[[Otaku No Yen]]'' in [https://web.archive.org/web/20121009064607/http://www.otakunoyen.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=61 this strip]. Shortly after appearing, the angel stops trying, since he also agrees with the devil, but had to make an attempt to do his job first. Later on, the devil (having tied up the angel elsewhere) reappears alone and argues that the absence of the angel indicates that there is nothing wrong with what is currently going on.

* ''[[Filthy Lies]]'':

{{quote|'''Joel:''' Two angels? Shouldn't one of you be a devil?

* ''[[Piled Higher and Deeper]]'' featured an [http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=71 early strip] where [[Granola Girl]] Tajel decides to apply for a job that will let her exploit her Humanities degree to sell software. Despite this, the application process is essentially an [[Aborted Arc]].

* ''[[The Oatmeal]]'' [http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones used this] to bring up why [[Digital Piracy Is Evil|digital piracy is justifiable]].

 

=== Web Original ===

* Kawaii RanChan on livejournal has an odd habit of adding in her own twist on what she calls her shoulder angels assigned to her by a division of angels in Heaven called Angels Inc., which is a company that assigns guardian angels to people in need. The angels themselves always take the form of characters she likes, OOC or not, that way to actually get her response. It is hinted in a few entries from her good angel that "we're less guardian angels, more invisible friends" — which is all just her own satire about herself. Doesn't make her less crazy.

* Subverted on the "Give In" episode of [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/loadingreadyrun/3606-Give-In\]''loadingreadyrun'', when the main character is trying to decide if he should shoot someone, and {{spoiler|he goes ahead and shoots the guy before his good angel has a chance to give his point of view. The good angel is quite annoyed by this.}}

 

=== Western Animation ===

** In "The Frying Game," after killing an endangered caterpillar, Homer's bad angel kills his good angel, telling Homer that now "they are in this together." Then they high-five each other.

** Various colour coded miniature versions of Lisa represent her various states of mind, including envy, guilt, the conscience itself, and the libido, who's been locked in a cage and isn't allowed to come out until she's 16.

** In yet another episode, Homer is portrayed with 400 devils on his shoulder.

* In a couple of episodes of ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'', Garfield's good and bad angels fight over what courses of action he should take. His bad angel usually uses every method he can think of to send the good angel as far away as he can; the good angel, in return, often reenters the scene through unusual means. (Example: the bad angel mails the good angel to Hawaii. The good angel later walks back through the door carrying luggage and wearing an aloha shirt.)

* ''[[The Daily Show]]'''s Jon Stewart had a Tom Brokaw angel and a Don Rickles Devil arguing about whether or not to follow the Congressman Weiner scandal.

 

=== Advertising ===

* One of the "Not going anywhere for a while?" ads for Snickers subverted this by having a cartoon Republican elephant and Democratic donkey appear over a (live-action) voter's head in the voting booth and argue about who the man should vote for. Their arguments are parodies of the presidential candidates of that year ([[George W. Bush]] and [[Al Gore]]); the elephant repeatedly compares himself to his father, while the donkey makes grand claims about [[Memetic Mutation|inventing things]].

* Played with in one of the Philadelphia cream cheese ads, in that the protagonist herself is actually an angel and therefore has only a devil appear on her shoulder.

 

* Early in ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'', Hayate's devil tells him to give up, while his angel tells him not to give up hope...and suggests that he kidnap Nagi and hold her for ransom, which freaks out the devil.

* [[Dark Magical Girl]] Utau in ''[[Shugo Chara]]'' has two [[Ghost in the Machine|Charas]], Iru the Devil and Eru the Angel.

{{quote|'''Friend:''' So what happened?

'''Girl:''' They all went to their class reunion. }}

 

* A ''Bec & Kawl'' strip from ''[[2000 AD|Two Thousand AD]]'' subverted this with a Pagan avatar showing up to present a [[Take a Third Option|third option]] when Beccy is finally given the chance to rule the world.

* One ''[[PS238]]'' storyline involved "cherubs" and "imps", representing [[Order vs. Chaos|Order and Chaos]] rather than Good and Evil, influencing people's behaviour, and resembling the Good Angel, Bad Angel to those who could see them.

 

 

* Parodied in ''[[That '70s Show]]'' episode "Roller Disco", in which Fez is tempted to take advantage of a drunken Jackie. Instead of Angel vs. Devil, he's got Batman vs. Riddler.

* Subverted in the ''[[Married... with Children]]'' episode "Oldies but Young 'Uns", where Kelly's new boyfriend, Vinnie doesn't dare to touch her, because he's [[Overprotective Dad|afraid of Al]]. A miniature devil and angel appear on his shoulders, and the devil says: "Oh, grab her, you've got worse beatings for less." When Vinnie turns to the angel, the angel says: "What you looking at me for? If I wasn't so tiny, I would be wild-thinging her myself!"

* ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air]]'' gives Will two devils. While he's deciding on whether to "borrow" the car keys and sneak out, his shoulder devil appears. After the devil tells him to take the keys Will expectantly turns towards his other shoulder, only to have his other shoulder devil appear and tell him to take the damn keys already.

* A similar example from the 2011 series of [[Rab C. Nesbitt]]. While trying to resist the demon drink, a devil appears on Rab's shoulder in the form of his mate Jamesie Cotter. Rab is [[Genre Savvy]] enough to know that he should wait for his good angel to appear (and [[No Fourth Wall|tells the audience as much]]). The second angel duly appears in the form of [[The Pogues|Shane MacGowan]], telling him "No luck mate, you've got ''two'' bad angels."

 

=== [[Newspaper Comics]] ===

* In one ''Tina's Groove'' strip, Tina is confronted by what she assumes are her shoulder angel and devil, representing her conscience and temptation. They inform her that they're actually the team that warns her of embarrassing dandruff, and are there to recommend a good shampoo.

* In an episode of ''Arlo and Janis'', Arlo is visited by two copies of himself, both identical. One tells him he should be more ambitious, out to change the world. The other says that the world needs more honest, contented, hardworking family men and he's doing fine as he is. He asks, "Shouldn't one of you have a halo and the other horns?" They both shrug blankly.

 

=== [[Video Games]] ===

* ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]] 2'' has the characters Kuo and Nix, who each encourage Cole to act towards good or evil, respectively. The subversion? {{spoiler|The climax has them [[Face Heel Turn|switch]] [[Heel Face Turn|roles.]]}}

 

=== [[Web Comics]] ===

** When Haley the rogue loses the ability to speak, she first hallucinates a version of herself that's [[The Snark Knight|dark and sarcastic and cynical]]—her moody teenage self, acting as de facto Bad Angel. Then her optimism shows up to act as Good Angel. Then, as the stress causes her psyche to fracture further, she has a complete ensemble of her various personality traits, all showing up at once and arguing over each other. It's not exactly helpful. Though the "Bad Angel" is actually quite sensible.

* [http://viciouslies.comicgenesis.com/d/20010523.html Here's] another bad-angel variant from ''[[Vicious Lies]]''.

{{quote|'''Feiht''': Uhm... The voices in my head are having creative differences.}}

* ''[[Sandra and Woo]]'', though in this case these are more [http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2009/07/23/0079-a-devilishly-good-idea/ racing] than directly opposing.

* ''[[Magick Chicks]]'' occasionally. Like with [http://www.magickchicks.com/strips-mc/a_little_forward_-_ec_crossover_strip Melissa].

* ''Golden Age'' presents [http://goldenage.comicgenesis.com/d/20100206.html the classic pair and replacement] (after their human got annoyed with them).

 

=== Western Animation ===

* In a ''[[Timon and Pumbaa]]'' episode, Timon's shoulder angel and devil advise him whether or not to eat some friendly termites. As they're arguing with each other, Pumbaa's shoulder angel and devil appear and start arguing with Timon's angel and devil.

* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'', when Moe refurbishes his bar into a gay lounge, he at first thinks of telling his new patrons that he's straight. The first one to pop up is his shoulder devil (essentially Moe dressed in a tuxedo with devil props), who encourages him to hide behind his homosexual façade, but when he says they should wait for what Angel Moe has to say, the devil replies: "''I'm'' Angel Moe". Then, the real Devil Moe (a bestial-looking, hulking red demon) pops up on his other shoulder and devours Angel Moe before letting out a guttural, evil laugh.

 

=== Real Life ===

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Dead Horse Trope]]

[[Category:Webcomic Tropes]]

[[Category:Acting for Two]]

[[Category:Externalizing Internal Monologue]]