View source for Our Angels Are Different

{{trope}}
[[File:our-angels-are-different2 6896.jpg|frame|{{smallcaps|[[Catch Phrase|Fear not.]]}} ]]

{{quote|'''Dean:''' I thought angels were supposed to be guardians. Fluffy wings, halos -- You know, [[Highway to Heaven|Michael Landon]]. Not dicks.
'''Castiel:''' Read the Bible. Angels are warriors of God. I'm a soldier.
|''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''}}

Lots of works include angels, but not always the same kind of angels. Oftentimes, a creator will try and put a unique spin on his or her angels.

Angels in fiction tend, by default, to be of a [[Lowest Cosmic Denominator|vaguely Abrahamic]] nature, and may or may not have [[Winged Humanoid|big fluffy feathery wings]] or [[Holy Halo]]s. They generally are found doing [[God]]'s will as part of some sort of grand plan, helping mortals (sometimes [[Angel Unaware|incognito]]), or otherwise staying aligned with Good. If one refuses to do so or makes a [[Face Heel Turn]], they became a [[Fallen Angel]] or a [[Our Demons Are Different|Demon]].

Angelic names, by the way, traditionally tend to end in "-el" (meaning "of God"), such as in the [[Archangel Michael]].

The prospective angel has many options available for customization:
* '''What is their morality?''' The most common way of varying things, often indicated by [[Good Wings, Evil Wings|wing color.]] Given that angels are usually messengers or servants of [[God]] (the word "angel" comes from the Greek for "messenger"), [[God Is Good]] / [[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 Humanoid]]s?''' 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 fully human, or else they look like some sort of [[Eldritch Abomination]]—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]], Atheist setting, or a [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]], angels are [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|not actually supernatural]], merely [[God Guise|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 [[Jerkass|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 Angel|Fallen angels]], if portrayed as good, are always within the [[Dark Is Not Evil]] realm. If they are jerks, may be [[Screw You, Elves|treated as annoying arrogant magical creatures]].
* '''How 'human' are they?''' If the author is trying to make a subtle point, or wants to go in for a [[Cosmic Horror Story]], they can make the angels, regardless of what they look like, be in some way [[Starfish Aliens|fundamentally inhuman]] [[Blue and Orange Morality|in their thinking.]]
* '''Can they fall from grace? And if so, do they become Demons, [[Fallen Angel]]s, or can they [[Humanity Ensues|become human]]?''' If a central character is an angel, expect an answer to this one; otherwise, tends to be left vague. May be able to fall in love with a mortal and give up their angelic nature.
* '''How powerful are they?''' [[Winged Humanoid]]s and angels are sometimes weak or at least [[Glass Cannon|easily damaged]] when their supernatural aspect is missing or not played up. More often however, they are portrayed as divinely powerful badasses. They do go toe to toe with [[Evil Counterpart Race|demons]], after all, and are canonically more powerful than human beings.

[[Sub-Trope|Sub Tropes]] include: [[Shinigami]] ("death angels"), [[Guardian Angel]], and [[Celestial Paragons and Archangels]] (the ones in charge). Not to be confused with [[Lovely Angels]], which are just adventuresome women. See also [[Winged Humanoid]].

Compare [[Our Fairies Are Different]], [[Pegasus]]. For angel feathers or wings used for symbolism, see [[Feather Motif]].

{{examples}}
== Biblical Angels ==
Angels in [[The Bible]] can belong to several classes. [[The Bible]] doesn't mention an exact ranking for these classes; only the "archangel" class is mentioned as being higher than the others, with the other classes presumably being of the same rank but having different job descriptions.
* ''Archangel''—The highest class. [[Archangel Michael|Michael]] is the only angel specified to hold this rank in the Protestant and Jewish [[The Bible|Bible]] canons. It's worth noting that "Arch-" as a prefix has a dictionary definition along the lines of "Pre-eminent among all others of its kind", so linguistically there should only ever be one Archangel (Or Arch-Enemy, or Arch-Anything).
* ''Elders'' -- (AKA ''Thrones'') There are 24 of this class as mentioned in Revelation.
* ''Living Creatures''—These angels are a specific set of four ''Cherubim'' mentioned in both Ezekiel and Revelation. Their descriptions vary slightly from both accounts, but they seem to have faces varying from that of a lion, ox, man, and eagle, eyes all over their bodies, and more than one pair of wings. (In other words, they are the angels most likely to fit the page image.)
** In Ezekiel, each is paired with one of the four ''Ophanim'', meaning "wheels", which are eye-covered, wheel-like interlocking chariot wheels. (Note: In this listing the ''Thrones'' and ''Ophanim'' are NOT identified as the same.)
* ''Cherubim'' -- (singular ''Cherub'') [[The Bible]] is silent on what normal angels of this class looked like, but according to Jewish tradition, they were human looking, as both the Ark of the Covenant and Solomon's Temple included images of angels of this class in their design.
* ''Seraphim'' -- (singular ''Seraph'') Mentioned to have six wings, four of which are used to cover themselves. Their name means "burning ones".
* ''Angels''—These are the ordinary inhabitants of Heaven; if something needs doing on earth, these are the guys who generally do it.


== Angels in Christian Tradition ==
There is also a traditional ''celestial hierarchy'' of angels, which comes from an early [[Word of Dante|Christian writing by one "Dionysius"]] (thus, the ranking and some of the angelic classes themselves are not found in [[The Bible]]). It divides angels into the following nine "Choirs" ordered from greatest to least, of which only the first and last two are commonly seen in art and literature:
* ''Seraphim'' -- (singular ''Seraph'') Traditionally six-winged, red, and fiery; represent God's love. The reason they have six wings is to cover [[One-Winged Angel|their true form]], which is so bright and glorious that [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|all who gave upon it (sometimes including lesser angels) are incinerated instantly]]. They are also associated with snakes (their name is a corruption of "sarap", "fiery", more often than not connected with the word "nahash", "serpent"). Their chief is St. Michael. Satan ''used'' to be one of these (hence his six wings in Dante's [[Divine Comedy]]). If they're ''not'' covered and won't set you on fire, they're described as handsome... but tall, terrifying, fiery, and speaking in Earth-shaking (quite literally) voices.
* ''Cherubim'' -- (singular ''Cherub'') Tend to be depicted in blue, or ''as'' blue (or red, or lots of different colors); represent God's knowledge and act as soldiers and [[Guardian Entity|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 [[Sadly Mythtaken|confused]] with Cherubim (or even Seraphim, as in [http://www.lib-art.com/imgpainting/7/0/10507-stigmata-of-st-francis-domenico-ghirlandaio.jpg this painting] by Ghirlandaio).
* ''Thrones'' or ''Ophanim''—Hold up God's throne, or are the living wheels of His chariot. They serve as the [[Genius Loci|headquarters]] of the Virtues and the Upper Choirs and control the natural laws as well as being the bringers of God's justice who represent His authority (and badassery). They have the most alien physical descriptions of all the angels: wheels nested within wheels, constantly spinning, with rims covered in eyes. They may be "beryl-colored" (probably a greeny-yellow) and/or on fire.
* ''Dominions''—Not mentioned in Protestant and Jewish [[The Bible|Bible]] canons. Wear crowns; represent God's power. Each serves as the patron angel of a nation [[Our Presidents Are Different|and ruler of all angels assigned to that nation.]]
* ''Virtues''—Not mentioned in Protestant and Jewish [[The Bible|Bible]] canons. Traditionally wear armor and swords and are considered to control the heavenly bodies. They live in the Thrones. The previous three choirs form the bulk of the heavenly army.
* ''Powers''—Not mentioned in Protestant and Jewish [[The Bible|Bible]] canons. Carry flaming swords and chains to bind [[The Devil]]; serve as [[Guardian Entity|guardians]]. In Christian tradition the Angel with the [[Flaming Sword]] in Eden was one of these, the Archangel Jophiel. Are considered [[Internal Affairs|Angels Of Justice]] and are considered perfect, incorruptible ultimate angels created by God himself. ([[RoboCop|Sound familiar]]?) [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|Naturally]] some beliefs list [[The Devil|Satan]] as a former Power.
* ''Principalities''—Not mentioned as a group in Protestant and Jewish [[The Bible|Bible]] canons, but the Book of Daniel refers to a spirit that Gabriel calls "the Prince of Persia." Gabriel also identifies Michael as the Prince of Israel. Principalities traditionally bear armor and swords, and watch over rulers and nations. As well as acting as [[Da Chief|the head of a specific group of angels.]]
* ''Archangels''—According to apocryphal works there are seven, including [[Archangel Michael|Michael]], [[Archangel Gabriel|Gabriel]] (mentioned in [[The Bible]] canon but only as a normal angel), and [[Archangel Raphael|Raphael]] (appears in the deuterocanonical book of Tobit). (Names for the others, such as Zadkiel, Uriel, and Ithuriel, don't seem to have caught on.) 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. In 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.
* ''Angels''—Used as a name of an angelic choir, these are usually the lowest rung of the hierarchy. They function as messengers to and from Earth.


== 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, '''nanoviruses''', formless... [[Buffy-Speak|things]], and, unbelievably enough, [[Bishonen Line|one that's easily mistaken for a human being]]. It's explained in the [[All There in the Manual|Classified Information]], but basically the Angels were born from [[Eldritch Abomination|Adam]] during [[Earthshattering Kaboom|Second Impact]], and each Angel can be considered a parallel to a whole species, hence why humanity as a whole, born from [[Tomato in the Mirror|Lilith]], are collectively the 18th Angel.
** However, in all honesty, aside from being called Angels and sharing some names, they don't seem to resemble Supernatural Cosmic Entities or Messengers/Servants of a Higher Power at all, but rather just Alien Invaders for all practical purposes.
** In Japanese, they are called the ''shito'', the term used for the disciples of Jesus by Japanese Christians, hence a more appropriate translation would be 'Apostles'. Though this still isn't a very apt description of what they are.
* ''[[Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan]]'': Holy crap, these are not the angels you expected! They'd be cuter [[Grotesque Cute|if they stopped maiming/killing]] Sakura-kun.
* ''[[Angel Sanctuary]]'' — Where they do drugs, have [[Reincarnation|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; {{spoiler|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.
* M. Alice Legrow's ''[[Bizenghast]]'' has the souls set free from torment turn into angels with long white robes and haloes of flame.
* ''[[Digimon]]'': Most of the angels in Digimon are pretty blond [[Winged Humanoid]]s, while most Fallen Angel Digimon are black-clad [[Winged Humanoid]]s with really sharp claws. The Angemon and Devimon "family" are quite large, mostly consisting of advanced, [[Distaff Counterpart|female]], or [[Palette Swap]]ped versions of the original, with [[Power Gives You Wings|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. [[Oh Crap|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 ''[[LOLcats|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, at the end of the show. Although only an Ultimate-Level digimon, seems to be able to fight on even grounds or even with an upper hand, against Mega-Level digimon.
** There is a list of the more well known one's on Digimon's work page.
* The Angels of ''[[Mnemosyne]]'' appear to be a total aversion of the traditional angel archetype. They're {{spoiler|former male humans who have had a time spore put into them}}, have flesh-like wings and monstrous features (including [[Eyes of Gold|gold eyes]] with [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|red sclerae]]), work for the [[Big Bad]] who [[A God Am I|considers himself to be a God]], but are monstrous creatures that continually hunt the immortal women of the story in order to {{spoiler|consume their time spores}}. However, right at the end of the series, {{spoiler|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 possess mortals to be able to stay in mortal plane. Though, of course, [[Older Than You Think|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 ([[Our Vampires Are Different|vampire]], [[The Fair Folk|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 "[[Title Drop|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 [[Boys Love|very male main characters]].
* The angels of ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' are [[Winged Humanoid]] [[Cute Mute]]s, except when [[Magic Music|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 ''[[A Certain Magical Index]]'' appear to mostly be decent/lawful neutral guys, but if {{spoiler|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 {{spoiler|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.}}
** Additionally, there exist artificial angels in the science side, such as {{spoiler|Kazakiri Hyouka}}, although there are special circumstances in order to fully activate them. There is also an event called an "Awakening" in certain espers, which allows them to [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|awaken]] their angelic forms, presumably having something to do with AIM fields.
* 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  {{spoiler|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]]'', {{spoiler|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...
* The Proxies of ''[[Ergo Proxy]]'' are sort of like angels (although the word is never used). They exist to fulfill the will of a Creator {{spoiler|actually humans who fled from Earth in the far past}} and have nearly god-like powers. Two of those shown, Kazki's Proxy and Monad Proxy have wings, and the former calls to mind [[Fallen Angel]] imagery (he's an evil [[Bishounen]] whose true form is a black, horned creature). There's also the fact that [[Ergo Proxy]]  {{spoiler|the protagonist Vincent, thus an [[Angel Unaware]]}} calls to mind the Angel of Death with his [[Catch Phrase]], "I am Ergo Proxy, the agent of death."
* In ''[[Koi Cupid]]'', cupids exist to bring couples together so their baby can be born.
* In ''[[Trinity Blood]]'', both Cain and Abel can transform into 4-winged angel-like beings when their Crusnik powers are activated, with Cain having [[Light Is Not Good|white wings]] and Abel having [[Dark Is Not Evil|black wings]], respectively. Aside from the obvious [[Cain and Abel]] parallel, they also serve as analogies to other angels, for example Cain is a fairly obvious stand-in for [[Satan|Lucifer]], particularly with his "fell to Earth" backstory.
* In ''[[Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt]]'', Panty and Stocking spend their time engaging in [[Seven Deadly Sins|lust and gluttony]], respectively, and in a rather human form. They remove undergarments to use as weapons and assume a slightly more angelic form via [[Transformation Sequence|pole-dance]].
* Nadeshiko Kinomoto from ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]''. An already rather angelic-looking woman (by conventional Western definition of "angelic"), she died and got a pair of wings in [[Heaven]].
* ''[[Genesis of Aquarion]]'': our angels are, put bluntly, weird. In order: their morality is [[Moral Myopia|myopic]] [[Fantastic Racism|at best]]; while some of them (most notably Apollonius, Touma and Futaba) are [[Winged Humanoids]] (and some of them even have feathers for hair), they vary enough to include sphinx-like figures and their Looming Menacing Bat-Winged Leader With The Helmet (TM); yes, they are supernatural...kind of...we think; yes, most of them are indeed jerks; they are fairly humanesque, although they would vigorously deny this; and they cannot fall from any kind of divine grace ''per se'', although Apollonius certainly gave it his best effort. {{spoiler|Other differences: they are capable of breeding with humans, with a couple of major characters being descended from Apollonius and the human warrior Celiane; they reproduce by means of the Tree of Life, which has to be illuminated by Solarwing's power before it will be restored; their feathers can store information, and can be implanted into a human to grant superhuman piloting ability at the cost of hideous pain; and they treat humanity as livestock, harvesting us to feed our life energy to the Tree.}}
* ''[[Black Butler]]'': We have {{spoiler|Angela/Ash}}, the [[Gender Bender|on-command gender-bending]] fallen angel. But of course, this one also has those [[Winged Humanoid|big, white, feathery wings]] to make it [[Sarcasm Mode|all better.]]
* ''[[One Piece]]'' has a few examples, the natives of Sky Island being the most obvious. Their wings are never seen or mentioned to be functional. In fact, the only person who seems to comment at all on their appearance is Sanji, and only with respect to the women. The fact that the Shandorians seem to have had wings even before they were, ahem, relocated just makes it more peculiar.
** Also, in the 10th movie, the villagers of the levitating islands suddenly sprout wings and fly {{spoiler|to freedom when their island prison is destroyed}}. Prior to this, the slight feathering on their arms are only tentatively described as existing because they "Wish to become birds."
* In ''[[Bloody Cross]]'', the only pure blood angel shown is Tsuduki, who tends to act childish, immature and manipulative. He also doesn't appear to have wings or any other angelic features. The Manga also features a number of half-angels, who are all cursed to die when they turn 18 because of their heritage.

== 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 (Comic Book)]]'': 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 possesses people.)
** The Johnny Blaze version of the Ghost Rider later [[Retcon|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 [[Multiple Choice Past|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 [[Bodyguard Crush|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 [[Satan|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 ... [[Light Is Not Good|and was working for a demon called the Carnivore]]).
** [[The Spectre]]. The [[Anthropomorphic Personification|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 [[The Atoner|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.
** And then there's [[Azrael]]. While he's not a real angel, his appearance, for whatever unfathomable reason, immediatly just shouts "angel" in the minds of any DCU citizens he comes across.
* The [[Mind Screw]]y [[Warren Ellis]] ''Hellstorm'' series introduced the [http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/asuraa.htm 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 [[Retcon]]ned 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 ''[[The Sandman]]'' (and ''[[Lucifer (comics)|Lucifer]]'') are mainly warriors. The exception is cherubim which are balls of light that communicate in emotions.
** To elaborate, Remiel and Duma ([[The Quiet One|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.
* [[The Darkness]] has "The Legion of the Cherub Hostile". Another example of [[Light Is Not Good]] in the series, they're a horde of [[Enfant Terrible|childlike]] angels who wield little bows and flaming swords. And are intent on [[Omnicidal Maniac|purging all life]].
* Angel, of ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'', is explicitly stated from the beginning to be a mutant who just happens to have various flying mutations invluding big white fluffy wings. Except, of course, {{spoiler|later developments made him a descendant of Nephilim, along with Nightcrawler, and added healing blood to his powers}}.
* Divangelic from ''[[Empowered]]'' is a pair of [[Conjoined Twins]] - her left half, Charity, is an angel, but her right half, Vanity, is a devil. The mind boggles...


== Fan Works ==
* No angels actually appear in ''[[30 "H"s]]'', but it features [[Harry Potter]] [[It Makes Just As Much Sense in Context|wielding a super-guitar "laced with vessels that pulsed with angels' menstrual blood".]]
* Several works by [[Eyrie Productions, Unlimited]], including their magnum opus ''[[Undocumented Features]]'', include a character who goes by the name Zach Stephens and makes his living as a delivery guy for Celestial Pizza.  In reality, he's an angel -- an Ofanite as defined by ''[[In Nomine]]'' (see below).
{{quote|Zach's grin became a more personal smile.  "Utena," he said, in a friendly tone which suggested that he'd expected better from her, but forgave her.  "I'm ''everywhere'' people need pizza."}}
* [[Archangel Raphael]] appears in the short ''[[How Can It This Be]]'', as he has to guide the [[Spice Girls]], {{Spoiler| have [[Angel Unaware|became angels themsevles after their deaths]]}}. He along with [[Archangel Michael]] and [[Archangel Gabriel]] happens to be fans.
* ''[https://www.wattpad.com/story/173566505-final-stand-of-death Final Stand of Death]'' has different kinds of angels... any soul that was [[Was Once a Man| once humans]]: Fallen, Normal, Celestial, and Archangels.

== Film ==
* ''[[The Prince of Egypt]]'' has [[Psychopomp|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 [[Good Is Not Nice|a glowing smoke]] [[Eldritch Abomination]] that descends from the sky from what appears to be an '''interdimensional hole'''. This, as well as its job ({{spoiler|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.
* One of the protagonists' original complaints about the [[Archangel Michael|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". He also smoked heavily and used his angelic powers to seduce women, but did have big fluffy wings (although the feathers [[Perpetual Molt|fell out as he neared the end of his time on Earth]]). As the [[Tagline]] said, "He's an Angel, [[Did Not Do the Research|not a Saint]]".
* ''Here Comes Mister Jordan'' and ''[[A Matter of Life and Death]]'' feature heavenly messengers (angels [[Call a Rabbit a Smeerp|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.
* ''[[Hellboy (film)|Hellboy]] II'': The Angel of Death.<ref>Or possibly AN Angel of Death, as she specifically states that she's "Hellboy's Death."</ref> To say that this angel is [[Mind Screw|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 [[Eldritch Abomination|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.
* In ''[[Dogma]]'', If they have their wings cut off, it transforms them into humans (which apparently doesn't work for demons or fallen angels), and they can't drink alcohol (although that was mainly a restriction put on them after one angel had a few too many and insulted The Big Man). Metatron is said to have 36 wings with eyes and mouths all over his body, each mouth said to speak a different language, but in the movie he only had 2 wings, even though he did first manifest as a torrent of flame. The other two angels of the film, although disgraced, seem to have powers retaining to their old posts, with Bartleby, a grigori, knowing everyone's personal history by looking at them, and Loki, the angel of death, mentioned to be able to "rain sulfur" (although he doesn't seem to enjoy doing so). When in battle, both are (nearly) invulnerable to our mortal protagonists.
** Also, angels are as anatomically impaired as a Ken doll, which appears to be a [[Did Not Do the Research]] at first, as according to Genesis angels are very capable of doing the deed and making [[Half-Human Hybrid|Half Human Hybrids]], but It makes sense in the context of the movie. After all, much of the plot is based around how God can [[Retcon]] new rules for angels whenever S/He likes, as with the ban for alcohol after Loki's little tantrum. It would make perfect sense that God would castrate the angels to stop more Nephilim from being born.
* ''Really'' messed around with in substantial ways in the trilogy of films commencing with ''[[The Prophecy (film)|The Prophecy]]''. Written/directed by <s>Russell Mulcahy (the original ''Highlander'')</s> [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0927074/ Gregory Widen] 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. The angels' attitude towards humans are made clear by multiple angels dismissing them as "talking monkeys" and by Gabriel's diatribe to Thomas.
{{quote|'''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 Gabriel in this movie isn't the famous archangel. Just a dead Christian woman, who happened to be named Gabriel.
* In ''[[City of Angels (film)|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. {{spoiler|Then she dies, and he either commits suicide or becomes an angel again, depending on your interpretation of the ending}}.
** Both in this and the original ''Der Himmel über Berlin'' (''[[Wings of Desire]]'') angels are trenchcoat wearing, normal-looking humans with the twist that the protagonists usually can't see them. They are implied to have worn armour in the past though (the main character pawns his to buy warmer clothes when he becomes human).
* 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 Ten Commandments]] depicted the angel of death as a sinister green mist that descends from the sky and then spreads over Egypt.
* 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: ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEmOvo9-TlU Once Upon] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DCBPlkyLFo&feature=related a Honeymoon]'' (1956), ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbFxQtbwa5g Out of This World]'' (1954), and so on.
* ''[[Legion]]'' has [[Paul Bettany]] as a gun toting, asskicking rebel angel trying to keep the rest of the angelic host from exterminating humanity. Most of the angels aside from Gabriel and Michael ''are'' different--{{spoiler|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.
* In ''[[Star Wars]]: [[The Phantom Menace]]'', Anakin asks if Padme's an angel, having heard that they were beautiful creatures from the moons of Iego. He eventually visits Iego and meets one in ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]''; they're winged and very glowy, and one of the [[All There in the Manual|game sourcebooks]] gives the race's actual name as the Diathim.
* In ''[[Time Bandits]]'', the greedy, clumsy, quarrelsome dwarves are [[God]]'s servants. However, it's never stated that they are actually angels.
* In ''[[Barbarella]]'', a [[Winged Humanoid]] character claims to be an angel and is apparently innocence embodied, yet displays no supernatural powers and doesn't appear to be associated with any religion.
* The film ''[[Wristcutters: A Love Story]]'' has Kneller, a Cloudcuckoolander and [[Crazy Awesome]] [[Hidden Badass]] who runs a commune in a [[Crapsack World|purgatory]] reserved for suicides. He works [[Deus Ex Machina|within the bureaucratic machine]] to {{spoiler|bring the protagonist back to life at the end.}}


==  Literature ==
* Thomas Sniegoski's ''[[The Fallen]]'' series deals with a [[Half-Human Hybrid]] [[Chosen One]] being hunted down by the [[Knight Templar|Powers]], helped by a [[Deadpan Snarker]] angel and a talking dog, trying to redeem the [[Fallen Angel|fallen angels]].
** The angels and the Nephilim have certain powers, such as speaking every language (including animal "languages"), throwing fireballs, and conjuring flaming swords out of thin air. They also have wings that allow them to fly, although fallen angels had those cut off before they were exiled.
* 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. {{spoiler|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.}}
* Similarly, it is implied that the titular character of ''[[What Happened To Lani Garver]]'' might be a "floating angel," which is sort of an ambiguously gendered [[Asexual]] teen guardian angel. {{spoiler|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 [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|destroying itself]]. {{spoiler|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 ''[[The Guardians]]'' 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.
* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Neverwhere]]'' has the angel Islington who pretty much fits the angel stereotype: divinely beautiful, unfailingly kind and caring, and frequently associated with light. {{spoiler|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 Invulnerable|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 his 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.") Proginoskes' great skill is to Name people, and the key to naming is [[The Power of Love|love.]]
** 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 blue. 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, and not outright antagonistic with each other, 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, seraphim and nephilim, has an animal form into which he can change—though the nephilim take the shapes of [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?|worms, snakes, dragons, and other ugly things.]]
* [[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, [[Energy Beings|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 ''Oyeresu'' (singular ''Oyarsa'') are more powerful beings [[Genius Loci|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 Oyeresu, like the eldila, have no genders but some have masculine and feminine identities. Furthermore, they have the ability to [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|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 Oyeresu, 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 "[https://web.archive.org/web/20140929135832/http://salvoblue.homestead.com/wings.html 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 [[Friendly Enemy|not-as-holy-as-he-should-be]] angel who's [[Not So Different]] from the [[Noble Demon|not-as-evil-as-he-should-be]] demon Crowley.
{{quote|He's also specifically stated to be a principality:
"Technically Aziraphale was a Principality, but people made jokes about that these days." }}
** ''Good Omens'' also states that angels are sexless unless they really want to make an effort.
* ''[[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, [[We Are as Mayflies|have immeasurably long lifespans]], and envy humans for our bodies—angels have no real bodies, so they cannot experience real sensations. 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.
** And sometimes they're [[Yaoi Guys|very, very gay.]]
*** Debatably gay, since they don't really have genders and there's nothing inherently sexual about Balthamos and Baruch's relationship.
* The Maiar from [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s Middle-earth (''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', etc.) are functionally angels (a step below the godlike Valar and two steps below creator god Eru) and 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 [[Our Demons Are Different|demon]]. They marry, usually each other; Melian is a Maia who married an elf-king named Thingol and became the mother of Luthien, 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? ({{spoiler|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 a blonde with blue eyes. She can fly (with pure white wings), read minds, control minds, talk to fish, breathe underwater, transform, and fight as well as Max, the strongest member and leader of the Flock. But she's not actually an angel. Angel is ''[[Meaningful Name|just her name]]''.
* 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 [[Jerkass]]es.
* Angels in ''[[Stationery Voyagers]]'' are ''very'' different from their common portrayals in most church art. (Description on work page.) Don't EVER [[Tempting Fate|push your luck]] with them! [[Good Is Not Nice|It doesn't]] [[Jerkass Gods|end well]]. And that's not even getting into the [[Our Demons Are Different|evil ones]]...
* Angels in Sharon Shinn's ''[[Arch Angel|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  {{spoiler|which are actually particle beam weapons since "god" is actually a spaceship orbiting the planet}}.
* While [[The Dresden Files|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.
** Plus all the fallen angels he winds up dealing with.
** Uriel is specified as "Heaven's spook" and apparently is liked and respected by [[The Fair Folk|Queen Mab of the Winter Court]]. He pretty much serves as Heaven's wetworks guy and assassin, doing the ugly, dirty jobs necessary to safeguard free will, but even so, he's actually a pretty nice guy to be around, when he's not dropping Biblical plagues and taking the firstborns of Egypt.
** He's a nice guy (has a good sense of humour), but you also have to remember he could wipe out all life on earth with very little effort and your really, really shouldn't [[Berserk Button|shorten his name]].
*** Less "all life on Earth" and more "every single star in the universe" kind of power. Cosmic in scope, and very few supernatural beings in the entirety of the Dresdenverse are able to go head to head with an archangel. The name issue makes sense, since the "-el" means "of God" with "Uriel" meaning "Light of God" - so taking out the latter half, especially when [[Meaningful Name|names have power]], is a really bad idea. This is an even worse idea when speaking to Uriel or any other angel, since the suffix "-el" links them to God and is the most meaningful part of their identity. The reason Uriel was about to flip over Dresden giving him a nickname was that it completely ignored the most important part of who we is.
* In Thomas E. Sniegoski's ''Remy Chandler'' series, the title character is the Archangel Remiel, who has opted to give up being an angel and live as human. The angels of the series have a collection of special spiritual abilities that Remy can call on, at the cost of losing his sense of humanity.
* The first volume of the encyclopedia series "Man, Myth, and Magic" describes angels and how peoples' perceptions of them changed over time. One part of the entry described a female angel who's [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|96 miles tall]] (that's 506,880 feet for those who are curious).
* Novelist/Irish Catholic priest Andrew M. Greeley wrote a trilogy of novels, ''Angel Fire'', ''Angel Light'', and ''Contract With an Angel'', in which he depicts angels as benevolent [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]], immense [[Energy Beings]] who can assume (or project a simulation of) human form, are capable of love and reproduction among themselves, and enjoy playing matchmaker among humans. Although they are aliens, they claim to be in direct communication with, and employment by, God. Notably, ''Angel Light'' is a modern retelling of the book of Tobin, one of the books of the Apocrypha, or lost books of the Bible.
** Well, not so much lost as [[Word of God|declared]] "non-canon" by various Christian churches. The Catholic, and Greek and Egyptian orthodox, Christians have a [[Broken Base|slightly different set of approved literature]].
* ''[[I, Lucifer]]'' features angels who are not winged humanoids but rather celestial beings of metaphysical energy. Angels suffer from pain if they commit evil acts (Angelic Pain), as well as corrupt their essense. This means demons are ''technically'' still Angels but are consumed with unimaginable pain constantly and their visage is a horriffic reflection of their nature. They are also immortal and their numbers are unchanged since God brought them into existance.
* In ''[[The Guardians]]'', actual angels exist but do not interact with humans, as their holiness leads humans to mistake them for gods. The Guardians are human-angel hybrids working on their behalf.
* The [[Powers That Be]] of the ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series can be considered angels, given that: 1) they're immortal spiritual entities, 2) they work for [[God]], 3) they were created by [[God]] before time began, 4) the [[Big Bad]] is [[Satan|a fallen Power]], and 5) it's heavily implied that they're the inspiration for Abrahamic angels (though it's ''also'' heavily implied [[All Myths Are True|that they're the inspiration for the gods in all of the non-Abrahamic religions]]). A fully manifested Power will look different to each person looking at it, unless the Power consciously chooses an appearance for that particular manifestation, or if the currently surrounding events are all related to a particular mythology, in which case its appearance will be drawn from that mythology. The most powerful of the Powers suffer from [[Time Dissonance]] since they mainly exist outside of time, with whatever the mortals are interacting with being mere fragments of the whole.
* The angels of Sarah Douglass' ''[[The Crucible]]'' trilogy manipulate humanity for their amusement and impregnate women while despising sex. "God" doesn't actually exist but is just the pooled will of the angels.
* In contrast in Matthew Stover's ''[[Jericho Moon]]'' it's the angels who are just basically mindless facets of Yahweh.
* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[Prospero's Daughter|Prospero Lost]]'' and ''[[Prospero's Daughter|Prospero in Hell]]'', Miranda is accustomed to her father's summoning angels. Once, an angel even appeared to her without being summoned. (The traditional nine-fold hierarchy is in effect.)
* In ''Angelology'' angels fall into three political categories: the loyal, who it is suggested are all female; the rebellious, who were apparently destroyed; and the Watchers, who also fell by mating with human women and producing [[Half-Human Hybrid|the Nephilim]], a race of [[Complete Monster]]s. The Watchers were imprisoned on Earth in a deep cave system which is where the story of Hell comes from. Meanwhile, the Nephilim spread and enslaved humanity until they were wiped out in the Flood—except for one who killed Noah's son Japheth and took his place. [[Unfortunate Implications|All Caucasians are descended either from Japheth's human children or from the Nephilim who killed him]]. The descendants have manipulated and ruled humanity from behind the scenes ever since.
* In ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' Satan (who is quite distinctly an angel, all be it one who waged a very ill conceived war on God) is described as being "in bulk as huge" as an island, winged, and armed with a spear as tall as a mighty ship's mast. Beyond this, he looks like a physically inspiring leader. Other angels are imposing, but less so.
* ''[[Mogworld]]'''s plot largely revolves around mysterious, angelic creatures that herd the undead back to their bodies and can delete things from existence. {{spoiler|These actually turn out to be anthropomorphized programs that drive the game's AI and act as game master tools for the developers.}}
* The only angel we really see in the [[Christopher Moore]] [[The Verse|verse]] is Raziel, who appears to be a traditional, beautiful [[Winged Humanoid]], but whose defining characteristic is being dumb as a bag of hammers. The narrator in [[Lamb: The Gospel According To Biff]] says Raziel's stupidity is so staggering that he's the [[Ur Example|reason]] the world has blonde jokes. What other angels are mentioned don't seem half so incompetent, but they do sound like snarky bastards.
* In Elizabeth Bear's novels ''Dust'' and ''Chill'' angels are <small>[[A Is]]</small> who run various aspects of the worldship the books take place on and manifest bodies made of electromagnetic force.
* In [[Sheri S. Tepper]]'s ''Grass'' the main character has a dream/vision of heaven in which an angel has a conversation with God. Instead of the traditional bird wings it sports dragonfly wings which she notes make more anatomical sense.
* In Jacqueline Carey's ''[[Kushiel's Legacy]]'' books, the people of Terre d'Ange are all descendants of angel and accordingly beautiful. The angels themselves are mostly absent, aside from paintings and statues, but near the end of Kushiel's Avatar, the angel  {{spoiler|Rahab}} makes an appearance, and is described as some sort of incomprehensible beauty, going with the [[Winged Humanoid]] image, albeit towering.
* In Kate Griffin's ''[[Matthew Swift]]'' series, the blue electric angels are actually the remnants of electricity, life force, stories and voices left behind in the telephone wires. With multiple personalities. When they start sharing a body with the titular Matthew Swift, things get complicated - not least, pronouns.
* [[The Book of All Hours]] - the Unkin.  {{spoiler|humans that experienced an unique event in their life that allowed them to touch the Vellum underneath reality.}} In the multiverse inscribed on the surface of the Vellum, these meta-humans have long since taken up different roles, [[Our Gods Are Greater|presenting themselves]] to mortal humans [[Our Demons Are Different|in different ways]] in pursuit of power.
* In the web-novel ''[[Domina]]'', angels are humans who have used the [[Bio Augmentation|toy maker]] to gain [[Light'Em Up|the ability to emit bright light]], which is a useful weapon against the vampires. Oddly, they don't seem to have any problem with the demons.
* In L.A Weatherly's Angel Fire trilogy Angels appear to be beautiful humanoids with wings and halos, but are in reality parasitic lifeforms that feed from the essence of human beings. Being touched by one results in getting Angel Burn, which manifests as either slowly increasing mental damage or various fatal and debilitating diseases. Angels are aware they do this and do not care, actively feeding on humanity and seeking to control them. They can take human form and cannot be killed in this form, but in turn cannot use their powers to kill. When in angel form they can be killed by the destruction of their halo. They are also not connected with God, they are actually beings from another dimension.
**  {{spoiler|Half-Angels though are exceedingly rare, only two exist and it is unknown just how as angels do not reproduce sexually, but they are different. They do not cause Angel Burn and do not have halos, thus they cannot be killed unless their human side is killed. They manifest as people with two sides to themselves, both sentient and aware but in essence the same person. They are also able to read a person's future by touching them, but cannot see futures where they are more than passingly involved.}}
* In Cynthia Hand's Hallowed series there are three types of angels. Angels serve God and are typical angels. Blackwings are Fallen Angels, the Nephilim to be precise, who chose to mate with human women and caused the third kind of angel to exist, Angel-Bloods. Angel-bloods come in two types; Dimidius, a child of an angel and a human and Quartarius, a child of a Dimidius and a human. Angel-Bloods are born with a Purpose, the reason they were born, and will at some point receive dreams about it. They must fulfill their Purpose or they will become a Blackwing, an angel who has forsaken God. Blackwings are in constant misery due to their separation from heaven, are incapable of flight due to said misery but can shapeshift into different forms, and are at war with the Angels.
**  {{spoiler|It is revealed that a third kind of Angel-Blood exists. Triplare, the child of a Dimidius and an Angel. They are exceedingly powerful, as close to an Angel as possible but they have free will. Only seven exist at a time. Three have been revealed in the series, the protagonist Clara, her brother Jeffrey and her romantic interest Christian.}}
* ''Jury Macntier'' is another great example of this. The Angels in Cloudia all have certain powers, and some are not what you'd expect an angel to have. For example, Goldalocks is a Wealth Angel, and is incredibly greedy, cruel, and cold-hearted. When revealed that  {{spoiler|Jury doesn't have magical powers or abilties}}, she laughs at her and throws money at her. Another example is Maybella's friend, Saffron. Saffron is a Lust Angel, and since those are not permitted in Cloudia, Queen Lilac took away her magic, so Saffron is stuck on Cloudia without any lust or sex, what she wants the most. She normally hates on Jury and wears almost nothing but ribbons. Granted, the Angels aren't as bad as the Demons from Fireda. The Demons eat flesh, drink blood, steal, murder, ect. Compared to them, these Angels seem holy.
** Oh, wasn't there a really infamous scene where Jury  {{spoiler|gets turned into a Demon as a punishment for dressing up like one and sneaking into a Demons-only club? Then proceeds to almost murder the shizz out of her friend, Allison? Or what about that trip planned by the Demons in Chapter 5 that almost killed Allison and made Jury a prisoner?}}
* In ''[[A Dirge for Prester John]]'' Qaspiel calls itself an anthropteron. John's complete fascination with it confuses everyone.

== 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 [[Walking the Earth|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, which isn't always a good thing. One episode of ''[[Touched By an Angel]]'', set in October 30, 1938, had then-rookie angel Monica turning on her angel glow to calm down a crowd that was panicked by reports of a Martian Invasion (they were listening to Orson Welles' radio broadcast of ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]]''). It didn't quite work.
** ''[[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 {{spoiler|Vorlons}} in ''[[Babylon 5]]'' pretend to be angels of the big fluffy wings variety, but they are really just [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]]s.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. Londo Mollari, however, saw nothing. Though never outright stated, it's implied that he didn't see anything because he's been touched by the Shadows (other theories like Mollari being an Atheist or that the Centauri weren't groomed by the Vorlons have also been put forward).
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' got into the game by introducing Castiel (an [https://web.archive.org/web/20130521041331/http://www.sarahsarchangels.com/C.html angel of Thursday] apparently) who dragged Dean out of Hell, and gave us the page quote. The angels of this setting give every indication of being fundamentally beings of light, though [[Unreliable Narrator|Zachariah]] says "in Heaven I have six wings and four faces, one of which is a lion," and in the next season [[Estrogen Brigade Bait|Castiel]] refers to his own true form as being "roughly the size of your Chrysler Building," after which Dean tells him [[Bigger Is Better|"All right, all right,]] [[Freud Was Right|quit bragging."]] As they are unable to ''safely'' or effectively interact with matter in these forms, they must, with explicit permission, occupy human hosts to do anything in the world. (Demons in the setting do the same thing, but without asking permission.) The collateral damage from their forms is also apparently the preferred form for combat, since an otherwise-improbable percentage of the dead angel count are killed by stabbing while in vessels.
** Without using traditional wings, they've also raised [[Offscreen Teleportation]] to an artform, using it in place of traditional flight powers, though they can manifest echoes of wings (Castiel with shadows, Raphael with lightning, and so on) and they sometimes get a feather-ruffle sound effect when teleporting.
*** Their death throes result in a burned imprint of wings on whatever surface(s) they were on, as seen from above, as well as a little falling ash for visual effect.
** In keeping with the [[Crapsack World]] they were introduced to, these angels are mostly quite unhappy and more or less invariably dicks. God has been AWOL for ages, but since no one ever really had contact with him, most of them don't know. Heaven is attempting to start the Apocalypse while pretending to stop it because a) the prophecy is the closest thing they've got to divine will b) they hate the stupid mud-monkeys and c) something needs to change. Oh, and Zachariah likes the power grab, Michael really wants to settle things with his brother, and Raphael apparently wants to punish Daddy for abandoning them by breaking his favorite toy. (Gabriel is off impersonating Loki.) There are mind games and betrayals and quite a lot of blood, since apparently most angel magic is blood-based and it must be smeared on things.
** Poor Castiel sided with humanity, died, [[Back from the Dead|was resurrected]], spent a season Falling into humanity, died again, this time by gory on-screen explosion, [[Death Is Cheap|was resurrected again with extra powers]], went power-mad trying to save the world ''again'', betrayed literally everyone it was possible for him to betray, [[A God Am I|declared himself God]], and was eaten from the inside out in an apparently final death.  {{spoiler|He got better, of course.}}
** Meanwhile we got a wide variety of angel personalities to complement his calm deadpan of faith, even as it broke up in interesting ways. Uriel is a coldblooded bastard, Zachariah is a heartless creep, Anna and Balthazar are two very different flavors of hedonist, while Gabriel's a bit like Balthazar only all sense of humor and phenomenal cosmic archangel powers...Michael's pretty bland, and Lucifer is mild-mannered, casually cruel, and quite terrifying.
** Design choices were clearly made with inspiration from ''[[Wings of Desire]]'', ''[[The Prophecy]]'', ''[[Good Omens]],'' and probably a little bit from ''[[Dogma]]''.
* 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 [[Have You Seen My God?|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]].
** The angels are also hermaphrodites, and are apparently oversexed because they're made of the very fires of creation. Prior ends up getting a [[Raging Stiffie|"barometer"]] for whenever the Angel is going to make an appearance.
* In ''[[Charmed]]'' there are Whitelighters, essentially guardian angels - good people who were rewarded for their good deeds in death - 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 Angels|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. They are also near invincible as they can be blown to pieces, only to quickly reform. However they can die when shot by an arrow from their Evil Counterpart, Darklighters.
** Paige, the youngest sister is actually technically an angel as well. Her mother had an affair with her Whitelighter and got pregnant with her as a result. She has Whitelighter powers in addition to her Charmed ones but she can also be killed by mortal causes and it's likely she won't live forever.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]:'' Old Series -- [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|alien]] beings of light that travel in a ship of lights and oppose [[Satan|Count Iblis]]. New Series -- {{spoiler|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 [[Half-Human Hybrid|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.
* The Japanese tokusatsu show ''[[Tensou Sentai Goseiger]]'' features the Gosei Angels, a race of humans born with mysterious powers (card-based magic and giant robots) who fled to another world 10,000 years ago so that they wouldn't disturb normal humans. Also, for some reason they have feathery wing motifs during their transformations despite not having actual wings.
** There's also an episode of ''[[Dengeki Sentai Changeman]]'' involving an angelic woman who turned out to be an alien from a world where where people are winged, can do things like making flowers grow, and [[When She Smiles|a smile]] or [[Compelling Voice|a song]] by one of its inhabitants can instantly drain the will to do violence or evil. Any connection between her and the Goseigers lies in the realm of [[Fan Wank]], though.
** ''[[Mahou Sentai Magiranger]]'' features the Heavenly Saints from the [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven|heavenly world Magitopia]], with names like Sungel, Raigel, and Magiel, and while they may lack wings, they otherwise fit the bill quite well.
* The Weeping Angels in ''[[Doctor Who]]''. These are explicitly aliens, "creatures of the abstract", "as old as the Universe itself or very nearly". An [[Exclusively Evil]] race of sadistic, murderous psychopathic ''ideas'' (really, ''memes'' are the best way to describe them), they normally kill someone by sending them back in time and space to a point from where they will live a good, fulfilling alternate life, but that is just part of the complex way they feed- if they can afford it, they '''will''' kill you, brutally and painfully, [[For the Evulz]], probably after playing cruel mind games about your impending death for the hell of it. They look like statues of [[Winged Humanoid]]s, but ''only when they're being observed''. When there's no sentient observer, they can move freely about, [[Paranoia Fuel|and do so at incredible speed]]. In addition, they have [[Mind Over Matter|powerful telekinetic abilities]] and can kill you with a single touch. They reproduce according to the saying "whatever holds the image of an Angel becomes ''itself'' an angel", which means that new ones can emerge from photographs, videos or recordings of them, and even from the mental image you have in your head once you've seen one. So, essentially, if you're not looking at them, they'll kill you horribly, and if you ''are'' [[Brown Note|looking at them]], you'll end up [[Body Horror|turning into one]].
** There's also The Host - angel-themed robot servants on the starship ''Titanic'' (not ''that'' [[Starship Titanic]].) When they're sent into [[Crush! Kill! Destroy!]] mode by the [[Big Bad]], they pluck off their halos to use as weapons, leaving [[Fallen Angel|the two posts that held the halos on sticking up like horns.]]
* In the ''[[Masters of Horror]]'' episode "Cigarette Burns", angels are corporeal creatures and can be tortured, and the one seen in the episode is quite uglier than one would expect at first. It's heavily implied that the evil of ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'' is the result of documenting the desecration of said angel.


==  Mythology ==
* In [[Norse Mythology]] valkyries perform many of the same functions as Judeo-Christian angels, acting as messengers of Odin and gatherers of dead souls. They aren't winged but their horses are.
** They rode wolves first, horses are from later popular culture. They were [[Good Is Not Nice|usually the cause of death for the souls they took away.]]
** Both angels and valkyries began as monstruous creatures in their respective mythologies, before being disneyfied into pretty people.
* While having a completly different function, the Sirens and the Anemoi (wind gods) of [[Greek Mythology]] were depicted as angels are today, being in fact the origin of their modern depictions. Somewhat closer in role and also depicted as winged humanoids were Eros, Thanatos, and Hypnos.
* The word ''tenshi'' is currently the japanese word for angel. Originally, it referred to a kind of kami whose actual role and form were lost to time.
* Certain types of Dragons in [[Chinese Mythology]] serve the same purpose to Judeo-Christian angels, bearing messages from heaven and back and so forth.
* Yazatas served as the equivalent of Angels in Zoroastrian mythology, with Amesha Spentas as the equivalent of [[Arch Angels]]. Over time one of the Yazata Sraosha became the Angel Surush.


==  Radio ==
* Two angels appear in the first episode of Season 7 of ''[[Old Harry's Game|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 [[Retcon|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 [[A Hell of a Time|demonic orgies]]. Angels don't have sex, but apparently they can wish they did.


==  Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons & 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.
** Fourth Edition shakes things up by declaring angels to be "expressions of the Astral Sea", basically [[Energy Beings]] who mostly act as servants and mercenaries for the gods on their own initiative according to their individual inherent natures. They're depicted as glowy, winged, legless humanoids and can now be of any alignment (yes, evil gods can have angelic servants, too). Some of the other older 'celestial' terms have had their meaning changed fairly radically, too—4E eladrin are now the 'fair folk' elf subtype and available as a player character race, and 4E archons are elemental servants of the Primordials and thus technically ''enemies'' of the gods and those who work for them.
* ''[[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). As the Quotes page indicates, the pre-Fall angels were quantum beings that existed in multiple states—the actual debate that led to the Fall is described by one angel as simultaneously being a verbal debate ''and'' clashing elements of a symphony ''and'' a struggle between elemental forces. Actual angels have disappeared from Creation by the time the game begins, [[Have You Seen My God?|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.
** There is also a suggestion in one novel that the avatars of [[Mage: The Ascension|mages]] are the remains of the angels.
* [[New World of Darkness]]:
** ''[[Promethean: The Created]]'' features the ''qashmallim''. 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 human 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 in some points 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 ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Evangelion]]'').
** Ironically, the picture above is ''not'' an angel-rather, he's Gamugur, (a spirit of primal chaos from [[Werewolf: The Forsaken]], who took that form to interact with a religious cult.
* Also from White Wolf, ''[[Scion]]'''s equivalent of angels are the Hands of Aten. They are bad.
** Although the descriptions suggest that they are in fact [[Light Is Not Good|Aten's]] attempt to copy angels as described by humans. So the stories of angels, true or false, came before the Hands.
* The Living Saints of ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' 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 [[Schizo-Tech|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.
** Sanguinis is perhaps the closest thing to an actual angel; son of a [[Physical God]], feathery wings, totally [[Bishonen|bishie]], and pretty nice [[Black and Grey Morality|for that universe]]. But in his death throes, the [[Super Soldier|Space Marines]] made from his genetic material were afflicted with a propensity towards madness, and [[Our Vampires Are Different|a thirst for blood...]]
* Meanwhile, [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] has the [http://www.goblin-online.net/download/allumina.txt daemons of Alluminas], one of the [[Light Is Not Good|gods of law]], which resemble angels and are named after angelic classes.
* A creature type in ''[[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]]'', the most famous of which is the classic [https://web.archive.org/web/20090411232947/http://ww2.wizards.com/Gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=270 Serra Angel].
** While most are under the domain of White, there are other more atypical ones such as the [https://web.archive.org/web/20090526072034/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=185136 Maelstorm Archangel] and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20191017152229/https://status.wizards.com/ Platinum Angel]. And of course, Black has its share of [https://web.archive.org/web/20080810130350/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=26660 Fallen Angels].
** Each plane's angels are a bit different: [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=46546 Mirrodin] has cyborg angels, while others [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=188965 were cyberneticized] during the Conflux of Alara. All but the [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193660 most] [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=190407 powerful] of Zendikar's angels were shackled by [[Eldritch Abomination|the Eldrazi]] with their [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=189159 haloes] [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=197160 as blindfolds]. The [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5578 standard] [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=197006 Serra] [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=113519 family] come from an artificial plane created by the planeswalker Serra that was scrapped by the Phyrexians. Ravnica's angels are aligned with either the [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205362 Boros] [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=89074 Legion] or the [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83869 Orzhov Syndicate]. A [[Mirror Universe]] version of [[Knight Templar|Akroma]], [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193871 Angel of Wrath] is [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=122432 mono-red] instead of white. The rebirth of Mirrodin into New Phyrexia features the angels being surgically rebuilt into sociopathic monsters—appropriate enough, given that Phyrexia is basically a freakin' horror ''refinery''.
** Also, almost every single angel in ''[[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]]'' is female... except for rare exceptions like [http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=122481 Malach of the Dawn], a [[Mirror Universe]] example. When artist Steve Argyle illustrated a male angel for the card [http://magiccards.info/roe/en/20.html Emerge Unscathed], Wizards of the Coast ''made him change it''.
** Avacyn from Innistrad is basically a goddess of her own right (albeit [[Deus Ex Homine|a created one]], by the vampire Sorin Markov), lording not only over her church, but also over the plane's [[White Magic]], down to the fact that the other angels are much weaker without her. She also a lunar deity (think [[Classical Mythology|Selene]], only more of a protective deity), and a goth. And while the rest of the angels in Innistrad are the traditional [[Winged Humanoid]] sort, Innistradi angels are further divided into three groups: Flight Alabaster ([[Barrier Maiden]] and occasional [[psychopomp]]s), Flight Goldnight ([[Church Militant]]), and Flight of Herons (healing and scouting).
* 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 ''[[wikipedia:Engel (role-playing game)|Engel]]'' (Angel) where you play... angels. Which are {{spoiler|a bit different, to say the least}}.
* [[Iron Kingdoms]]:
** Angelus and Seraphim are powerful, six-winged... eyeless monsters made by and under the command of a [[Eldritch Abomination|dragon]].
** The Harbinger of Menoth is a more classical take on the angel, albeit wingless since she is human ; basically, Menoth's chosen one. As he deemed her too holy to touch the earth, however, [http://trow.cc/forum/uploads/post-2042-1299925671.jpg she does levitate] !
* Hallow, the setting of [[Legend Game System|Legend]], features enormous semi-sentient constructs of glass and metal called Angels. Their purpose is to oversee parts of the world, but the only part of that understood by humans is that they handle what happens to people and things that [[Floating Continent|fall off of plates]].


== Theatre ==
* ''[[I Married an Angel]]''.
* ''[[Angels in America]]''; the eponymous angel seems a typical one when she first appears, a beautiful woman with grey, feathered wings in a long white robe. But when the protagonist (who sees her in a bizarre vision where she raped him as part of a ritual of annoitation) describes her later, it seems this was a veil hiding something far more horrific.

==  Video Games ==
* In ''[[Growlanser]]: Wayfarer of time'' the protagonist, Crevaniel, sees a six-winged angel in the sky. Apparently only a select people can even see the angels.
* A solar (the highest rank of angel in D&D, and thusly someone even your character, the {{spoiler|child of the god of death}}, does not want to mess with) serves as [[Mister Exposition]] in ''[[Baldur's 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 {{spoiler|Betrayer}} says all you need to know, really.
* Despite being a murderous, evil, insane and near world destroyer, in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', Sephiroth's nickname is the "One-Winged Angel" and has his themesong named the same...although the mix of the song in Crisis Core is titled ''The World's Enemy''.
* Despite their conventional (and always female) depiction, Angels are almost always evil/corrupted by evil in the [[Luminous Arc]] games. And if the character of Priel in the first game is any indication, they're also very, very stupid.
** Specifically, in the first game Priel was  {{spoiler|a construct created by the [[God Is Evil|evil god]] [[Big Bad]] to keep his human pawns in check, presumably given the form she was so they'd feel more comfortable following her and mark her off as stupid. Which she's not - under the thick [[Valley Girl]] accent she's a sadistic psychopath and the [[Big Bad|God's]] number one fangirl. The end of the story shows that the idea she was crucial to his plans was another false impression, she's completely disposable, and in fact mass-produced.}} In the second game the sprite is reused as generic ranged [[Mooks]] called succubus (and variations thereof).
* ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'': Two [[Bonus Boss|optional boss battles]] are perverse versions of Seraphim and Cherubim, and then the ultimate fusion/BonusBoss Seraphic Radiance takes this to new heights.
* Angels in ''[[Lusternia]]'' are extraplanar entities that dwell on the beautiful plane of [[Arcadia|Celestia]]. They are essentially baby versions of the [[Physical God|Elder Gods]] that - with the departure of the resident creator deity - will never grow to adulthood, and so spend their time helping out the city of [[Lawful Good|New Celest]], via advice and angelic companions.
* ''[[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. Angels are even higher-up than the Composer, impossible for him to even see unless they downtune themselves to his frequency. Remember that the Composer is treated as God by everyone in the UG.
** The only Angel seen in the game itself, rather than just hinted at by the Secret Reports, is the writer of the Secret Reports himself, and the only Angel to have any hand in the Game itself, known officially as the Producer. His job is to assist the Composer, though he is forbidden by angelic law from actively interfering in the events of the Game itself. He is also the only Angel known to the Composer, and one of only two people who are supposed to know the Composer's identity. His true identity, given to us by these postgame reports, is {{spoiler|Sanae Hanekoma, AKA: CAT}}. {{spoiler|And he is ''not'' in good standing with the Angels, having been branded a Fallen Angel for teaching Minamimoto how to make Taboo Noise and assisting his resurrection}}.
* In the Devil Children subseries of ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'', angels are robotic, slightly humanoid creatures and are total [[Knight Templar]]s 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 flaming wheel; the Cherubs have at least once been seen as a robotic four-headed (a human head, a bull one, an eagle one, and a lion one) monstrosity; the Trumpeter from the Apocalypse is a winged ''skeleton''. Most named angels and archangels like Raphael, Uriel, and Mchael, 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 [http://media.photobucket.com/image/bondage%20angel/atm1986/Angel.png blindfolded and wearing bondage gear].
** In the first ''[[Persona]]'', Judgement Azrael, the Angel of Death, looks more like a [[Starfish Aliens|winged piece]] [[Eldritch Abomination|of modern art]] than anything even remotely resembling "living thing," let alone "human."
** Lucifer (yes, that one) has several forms: an impossibly beautiful, six-winged human with horns, or a towering abomination with midnight-blue skin, fangs, talons, bat wings and barely humanoid look, or a small boy, or a wheelchair-bound older gentleman, or a woman... And [[Word of God|Kazuma Kaneko]] says we still haven't seen his true form, a fusion of all his other forms.
** Satan's true form is even worse: an [[Eldritch Abomination|indescribable mess of leathery wings, tails, and assorted body parts]], [[Alien]]-like head, too many breasts to count, and insectoid legs. Also, Satan is on the side of Law, while Lucifer's Chaos. While neither one is explicitly named as Evil or Good by the protagonists, YHVH and Satan are explicitly mentioned as interested in [[The Evils of Free Will|stamping out all free will]], while Lucifer is working to destroy all laws and reduce Humanity to its barbaric essence. Therefore, neither side can honestly claim to be morally superior to the other.
** And, as of [[Strange Journey]], [[Lady Gaga]] [[Shout-Out|has now]] ([[Expy|apparently]]) [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110601195048/megamitensei/images/1/12/Judge_Zelenin.JPG joined the heavenly host]. And if you're [[With Us or Against Us|not with Law]], then [[Oh Crap|she don't wanna be friends]].
** Samael is a [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080705012920/megamitensei/images/b/b2/Samael.png Dragon that's a deep red color and has a serpent like appearance in the series]. Though whether he's a Angel or not depends on the game. Tzaphkiel is a [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110815200744/megamitensei/images/7/79/Tzaphkiel.jpg huge eyeball with wings] and Kushiel is a [http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110815200848/megamitensei/images/7/7d/Kushiel.jpg faceless humanoid.]
* 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]].
* [[The Elder Scrolls]] has a race of beings called "Jills," which are described as "the minute-maidens of Akatosh," and function as Angels in relation to him. In [[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim|Skyrim]] they will make their first in-game appearance as massive black Dragons that will try to eat your face off with some regularity.
** Many lesser Daedra could count as Angels as well, depending on how you view their respective Prince.
* ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' has two different stages of angel cosmology—pre-spoilers, and post-spoilers. Pre-spoilers, the [[Chosen One|Chosen of World Regeneration]] becomes a [[Winged Humanoid]] angel after awakening all of the summon spirits and regenerating the world. Post-spoilers, {{spoiler|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|deceased older sister]]) by [[Body Snatcher|Body Snatching]] the various Chosens emptied this way and eventually intend to turn all people into soulless angels to stop [[Fantastic Racism]]}}.
* Arguably, the [[Energy Beings|Naaru]] of ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. They look a bit like a winged, haloed man made out of geometric shapes. 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 [[Batman Gambit]] to lure and destroy Kil'jaeden. As opposed to the uncaring, unchanging Titans, the Naaru are portrayed as unambiguously Good, albeit somewhat aloof.
** And under certain conditions, they turn into void creatures: beings of shadow and darkness that may or may not remain sane and/or good. They automatically absorb dead spirits that stray too close to them. Sometimes they manage to change back, sometimes not. [[Word of God]] is that the void transformation is extremely rare and a cause of great sadness among other Naaru.
** There are also the spirit healers who have the traditional winged female human appearance (though they are translucent, invisible to living characters, and roughly double the size of the largest playable races). When a player character dies, they will materialize in spirit form at the nearest spirit healer and be given the option to either be ressurected by her (with a significant hit to their equipment's durability and an unremovable debuff that reduces all their stats by 75% for 10 minutes) or travel back to the location of their body.
*** Players of the priest class who are specced in the Holy tree have an ability that allows them to automatically assume the form of a spirit healer for 15 seconds upon their own death to keep healing their allies. Since spirit healers have a generically female appearance, a male priest who is using a gender-specific title will see his title change to the female equivalent during the 15 seconds that he is in spirit healer form.
* The angels of the ''[[Diablo (series)|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 with shades of [[Knight Templar]]. 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.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20120913051935/http://diablo.incgamers.com/gallery/data/510/medium/1920x1200_NFR_Imperius_by_Holyknight30001.jpg Imperius] (Valor) and Malthael (Wisdom) almost had mankind destroyed for being a "taint on creation" via a vote among the 5-Archangel council: Imperius voted for destruction, while Malthael abstained, which meant the same thing. Tyrael (Justice), the good angel of ''Diablo 2'', only turned to humanity's side after watching a particular human [[Heroic Sacrifice|blow himself up to save the world]]. The other two angels sided with him, opting to wait and observe how humans would develop.
*** ''[[Diablo III]]'' reveals the other two Archangels who sided with humanity: Auriel (Hope), and Itherael (Fate). Both are pretty nice to the [[Player Character|Nephalem]], but by that point  {{spoiler|the Heavens are burning, the angels's doom is written in prophecy, and you're pretty much their ''only hope''}}. Tyrael was the first to see the value of humans, and even  {{spoiler|became one}} when he became fed up with the Council's inaction.
** Mankind itself (originally called Nephalem) was created by the union of rebel demons and angels; the rebel leaders, Lilith and Inarius, saw the humans as soldiers and slaves/worshippers respectively, even though the humans had the potential power to defy fate and surpass both the angels and demons (which is why the Angiris Council considered wiping them out).
*** Inarius also used the Worldstone to [[Brought Down to Normal|block]] the godlike [[Dragonball Z|Nephalem powers]] every human inherited from their supernatural parents, which would theoretically make humans more powerful than angels and demons combined. Yes, the Worldstone you've been ''protecting'' during ''Diablo 2''. The one that was said (by heavenly voices) to cause Armageddon if it were ever destroyed so the barbarian tribes dedicated their entire society to guarding it for eternity. The few humans who did learn of their heritage had their mind wiped by the Angiris Council. And that's why you still had to hack away at lightning enchanted gloams with a cracked sword instead of wishing them out of existence.
** ''Diablo 3'' seems to be playing up the [[World Half Empty]] nature of the franchise for all it's worth.
** In ''[[Diablo III]]'', a cinematic reveals that angels don't have faces shrouded in shadow...''they don't have heads''. {{spoiler|Tyrael}} actually ''grows'' a head when he falls.
** One of the signs that Imperius isn't as friendly as Tyrael is that Imperius' wings seem to be made of ''fire'' instead of light.
* While he's not actually stated to be any kind of angel, Jak's [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Superpowered Good Side]] in ''[[Jak 3]]''' uses light powers to heal and sprout massive radiant wings. This being [[Darker and Edgier|a later Jak game]], Jak's "angelic" form has [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]] and usually [[BFG|an]] [[More Dakka|extremely]] [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|large]] [[Stuff Blowing Up|gun]].
* ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'' vampires started out as angelic beings before they were cursed with blood thirst & immortality.
** And Kain's lieutenants are named after angels.
* ''[[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... {{spoiler|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 [[BFS|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 <s> God</s> [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|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 Battle|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 [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|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 Is Not Good|"Light"]] and [[Dark Is Not Evil|"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 [[Ominous Latin Chanting|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.
** An interesting sidenote here - angels are described in great detail in the Bible, and Bayonetta's dev team has [[Shown Their Work]]. Each category of angels looks the way it's described in the Bible, and the different types are helpfully and correctly identified the first time they show up.
* In the final level of the first ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', there's a breed of angel-like [[The Heartless|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.
** True to the trope, they don't look remotely humanoid..
* The angel girl in ''[[Cat Planet]]'' is a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]]. Who collects [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]]s.
* In ''[[Illusion of Gaia]]'' you get to the Angel Village at one point. Their angels are basically really tall humans, no wings and no emotions.
* In [[Deus Ex]], the security clearance levels of Majestic-12 correspond to the various choirs, with titles such as Angel/0A and Throne/6G.
* [[Okami]]: The extinct Celestials were very angelic, They had halos, yellow wings on their head, and lived a perfect life in a utopia. Four of them are seen in the game as ghosts.
* In the ''[[Fall From Heaven]]'' mod for ''[[Civilization]] IV'', the higher angels like to call themselves gods and interfere in mortal affairs. Several other angels are mentioned, and some are actually faction leaders. Cassiel falls from grace for hating that the others are messing with mortals. He comes down to Erebus and forms his own [[Lawful Neutral]] faction, the Grigori, who reject the "gods". Cassiel's appearance is that of a sickly-pale man. On the other hand, the Bannor Empire is partly ruled by an angel named Sabathiel, who still serves the "gods". His appearance is that of an attractive winged man in gleaming gold armor. Then there's a whole faction of angels called Mercurians, which was cast down after its leader Basium rejected the Compact (an agreement that limited interfering in mortal affairs) in favor of a direct war with the demons. Basium is merciless to anyone worshiping demons or practicing demonic magic. The Mercurians themselves are so vicious that many mortals simply assume they are another sort of demon. Basium looks like a grey-skinned bodybuilder overdozed on steroids.
* The Nimbis in ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'' are cute little guys who speak in [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe]] and live in the [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven|Overthere]], where pure souls go after [[Never Say "Die"|their games are over]]. They answer to Grambi, the Overthere's benevolent, bearded ruler.  {{spoiler|And it's heavily implied that Bonechill, the giant, monstrous boss of the level, is a fallen Nimbi.}}
* The angels of ''[[Monster Girl Quest]]'' are divided into nine classes, following the celestial hierarchy mentioned in the trope description. The lowest rank of Angels and the Archangels have humanoid forms. However, the higher ranks are grotesque and (as noted in-universe) could easily be mistaken for monsters if not for their haloes. This trend reverses for the highest rank of Seraphs, as they are humanoid again.
* Fi in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword]]''; at very least, that's the most likely theory as to what she is. Ghirahim is certainly a demon (he is called "Demon Lord Ghirahim" the third and final time Link fights him) and he is Fi's [[Evil Counterpart]], so it makes sense that Fi is an angel - or maybe she's a demon and not all demons are evil. Whatever the case, she ''is'' the Master Sword, literally, making her a very unique type of angel.

==  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, plus one atoning for the (unauthorised) destruction of a city, one whose behaviour is more representative of a succubus and finally a total drunk who got kicked out of heaven for being stoned. It's no wonder [[Have You Seen My God?|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 [[Our Elves Are Better|elf]], but people other than Ash and Emily can't see them. They're also all [[White-Haired Pretty Boy|White Haired Pretty Boys]] and [[White-Haired Pretty Girl|girls]].
* Angels from ''[[Dan and Mab's 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).  {{spoiler|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.
* The Heavenly hosts in ''[[Blip]]'' include white-robed [[Winged Humanoid]] [[chibi]]s, white-robed [[Winged Humanoid]] [[Bishonen]], some [[Children of the Corn]], [[Jesus|and at least one former human who's still wearing his street clothes]]. There's also the Adversary, who may or may not count as an angel, and wears a tuxedo and a [[White Mask of Doom]]. Angels serve the will of God, and are pretty big assholes.
** Their asshole qualities are justifiable. In the story, God has a plan for everything in the universe, except for K (the main character). K screws up The Plan. Just the suggestion of anything in the plan is enough to send angels into [[Heroic BSOD|BSOD mode]].)
* ''[[Narbonic]]'' introduces Cherubim who are winges masses of eyeballs due to a microwave oven accident.
* While we never see them up close, in [[Homestuck]] the troll's session had angels in Eridan's world which based on the outline are more creature-y than humanoid. He immediately starts shooting them upon arrival, and they are hostile to everyone for the rest of the game.
** He's justified in trying to kill them, though: Troll mythology describes angels as feathery ''bringers of the apocalypse''.
* ''[[Catena]]'' (see http://catenamanor.com/) by DeBray and Tracy Baily have angels. They're cats.
* The Paedagogusi in ''[[Errant Story]]'' more or less fit the angel role, by any other name... while they look (and occasionally act) like fairies... and they're ''different'', all right.
* In ''[[BIBLE]]'', angels are the souls of the virtuous gone to heaven (and ''act'' like real people, believe me). Note that heaven accepts souls from every planet in the universe, so angels are mostly aliens united only in ownership of wings and a halo. They can be temporarily banished for committing crimes against Heaven (fallen angels), or leave entirely and become known as devils.
** There are also cherubim, which are native to heaven, have no souls, and were created by [[Archangel Michael|Mikael]] as [[Cannon Fodder]].
* ''[[Order of the Stick]]'' shows us two angel characters during Roy's stint in the afterlife, both based on D&D celestials. The bureaucratic deva is a green-skinned traditional angel, but solely interested in filling out the paperwork necessary to process souls to their final rest. The aptly-named Roy's Archon is a tiny ball of glowing light provided to Roy as a guide during his stay.
* ''Dangerously Chloe'' had "angel hit squad" mentioned by Chloe's teacher Ilsa. When they actually appear on-screen, they are overpowered, overconfident and under-competent. Most hate demons to the point of laughable rants for no specific reason  (though one is in an undecisive [[Secret Relationship]] with an adventurous succubus). They also treat humans like pets: it's entirely acceptable to kidnap a "suspicious" puppy or a human who happens to see through their disguise, or to run around someone's house even if hosts object,  and if one probably mistaken some cheerleader for a succubus, it's not seen as a possible problem by more experienced ones - even if she have a habit of brandishing a flaming sword. And if they "arrest" a wrong demon, a few dozen years of incarceration while they sort out their bureaucracy is no big deal.
* In ''[[Evil Diva (webcomic)|Evil Diva]]'' most angels are rather meek and bland [[Punch Clock Hero|wage do-gooders]] full of themselves, though outstanding cases happen. Guardian angels are more of [[Crazy Awesome]], however - little do we know of their  martial arts, but there ''was'' [[Weaponized Headgear|using one's halo]] as a returning chakram. There are commonly known ways to swap halo for horns or vice versa, which  occasionally happens... especially for romantic reasons - it's apparently much less of a problem than the mixed pairs tend to face. These days angels and demons  go to schools together, which generally places the two groups in relations more like "[[Slobs Versus Snobs]]" than full-on [[Fantastic Racism]], though hilarity happens now and then, as well as [[Political Correctness Gone Mad|ridiculous attempts to avert it]] ("''[[Halo (series)|Halo]]'' competition? Oh, come on!").

==  Web Original ==
* In the [[Religious Horror|short story]] ''[http://everything2.com/user/Jet-Poop/writeups/Requiem+Aeternam Requiem Aeternam]'', angels  {{spoiler|[[I Am a Humanitarian|are hungry]]}}.
** Played for humor in [http://everything2.com/user/256/writeups/%2522It+could+use+a+space+ship%252C%2522+said+the+angel?author=256 It could use a spaceship, said the angel].
* In ''[[The Antithesis]]'', angels are a species classified as 'Archaeans' (winged, humanoids residing on a planet called The Atrium) and are ruled by Commander Yahweh Telei, who is surprisingly an adolescent prodigy and genetic engineer, suffering from cognitive disorders closely resembling O.C.D. and Asperger's. Angelic society revolves around high science and technology.
* 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 [[Warhammer 40,000]] fanfic ''[[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.
* The angels of ''[[Kumiko the Demon Girl]]'' are fairly standard except that they're explicitly stated to originate from ghosts who performed significant good deeds. Demons have the same origin.
* In ''[[Hitherby Dragons]]'', angels are gods (supernatural beings) that answer emptiness with hope and wear jackets with holes cut out for their wings. They have various powers and are often the result of a person making a promise an ordinary human can't fufill. Evasive A can grant wishes if the person catches her (but she's uncatchable), Magic A has a non-zero chance of accomplishing anything, Realistic A can provide a pragmatic assessment of the situation and it's best not to think about Forbidden A.
* [[The Nostalgia Critic]] Christmas Special: the guardian angel is pretty much like the one in ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'', except that he can feel pain, get hurt and,  {{spoiler|apparently, get killed by a gun.}} Also  {{spoiler|he tries to kill his charge on realizing how much better things would be for ''everyone'' including himself, if the Critic wasn't around.}}
* Several possible angels of varying stripes are catalogued by the ''[[SCP Foundation]]''.
** [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/dr-clef-s-proposal Dr. Clef's proposal for SPC-001] is a titanic glowing figure with a variable number of wings (ranging from 2 to [[108]]) apparently guarding a gate and will destroy anything that approaches; it is clearly meant to be a bona fide Judeao-Christian Angel as they were ORIGINALLY conceptualized. It's somewhat implied that it's specifically the angel which guards the gate back into Eden.
** [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-469 SCP-469] is a large humanoid figure with countless white-feathered wings sprouting from its back which spends its time curled up in a fetal position on the floor, resembling a huge pile of feathers. Any form of sound causes it to grow more wings and feathers and it agonizingly kills any living creature that touches it to feed off their screaming. Oh and in a macabre [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'', ringing a bell within earshot of it will cause it to wake up and do something unspecified but presumably horrific.
** Finally [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-861 SCP-861] is a large, elastic ball of "pseudorganic matter" capable of manifesting numerous different organs and appendages, ranging from feathered wings to shark fins. Oh, and anyone who comes near it has a chant foretelling the end of the world projected into their head in Biblical Hebrew, driving anyone who understands it insane.
* ''[[Shadowhunter Peril (Roleplay)|Shadowhunter Peril]]'''s Nicholas cries tears [[Sparkling Stream of Tears|illuminated from within]]. And he [[Tender Tears|cries a lot.]] [[Cry Into Chest|Often on Umbra.]]


==  Western Animation ==
* Played rather bizarrely in the second ''[[Futurama]]'' movie "Beast With A Billions Backs", where {{spoiler|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 [[Genius Loci|sentient planet]] that inspired [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven]], and pick parasites off its skin.}}
* [[Bill Plympton]]'s feature ''Idiots and Angels'' is about a [[Jerkass]] who grows a pair of wings that forces him to be nice against his will.

{{reflist}}
[[Category:Angelic Tropes]]
[[Category:Our Monsters Are Different]]
[[Category:Our Tropes Are Different]]
[[Category:Tropes of the Divine]]
[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
[[Category:Our Angels Are Different]]