History Main / BrokenAngel

* Aerie in ''BaldursGate II'', a WingedHumanoid whose wings were hacked off and burned.

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* There is a broken angel housed in the NERV basement in ''Evangelion'', it's the one nailed to a cross. Also, Rei might possibly count... FromACertainPointOfView.
** For that matter, so could Kaworu and all the EVA's depending on which interpretation you take.

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* In one episode of ''TinyToonAdventures'', [[CloudCuckooLander Gogo Dodo]] asks Buster, Babs, and Plucky rescue his friends from a CircusOfFear. Said friends include a Dragon, a Pegasus, and a Sphynx. The poor creatures are being magically tortured to perform and there's a risk they will disappear forever if they don't return to Wackyland in time.

* There is a broken angel housed in the NERV basement in ''Evangelion'', it's the one nailed to a cross. See it [[ApocalypseMaiden here.]] Also, Rei might possibly count... FromACertainPointOfView.

* Tan, a character in the RP group Heaven Hell Academy is a former guardian angel who sacrificed his wings, voice, and eyesight to save the girl he was supposed to be protecting.

* In one episode of {{Tiny Toons Adventure}}, [[TheScrewySquirrel Dodo]] asked Buster, Babs, and Plucky rescue his friends from a {{Circus of Fear}}, including a Dragon, a Pegasus, and a Sphynx. The poor creatures were being magically tortured to perform and there's a risk they will disappear forever if they don't return to Wackyland in time.

* In the more traditional terms of this trope, we have the Acanti, a race of SpaceWhales that have been enslaved by the Brood for generations. At least one arc of ''Uncanny {{X-Men}}'' in the '80s revolved around saving them.

** The entire rest of the story could be seen as a rather complex analysis of this trope.
*** Indeed. The unicorn-turned-human eventually comes to believe that being a human is more like being CursedWithAwesome after falling in love with someone -- something that unicorns can't experience. Unfortunately, she still has a quest to finish and abandoning it to live as a human isn't really an option.

* Lampshaded in the {{Shadowrun}} novel ''Lone Wolf'', when the protagonist spots a wretched homeless elf dozing in an alley, and wonders what it is about elves that makes such a scene feel far more tragic than seeing a human in similar squalid conditions.

* Ico's horns breaking at the end of ''{{Ico}}'' probably falls under this.
** It's open to interpretation. Depending on how you interpret the ending of the prequel, ''ShadowOfTheColossus'', the horns could be viewed as the mark of a curse, so Ico's horns breaking could symbolize redemption and the breaking of the curse.

* In ''{{Drowtales}}'', [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?order=chapters&id=309 Discodia]], [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?id=1090 Ariel]]
** However technically these are shapeshifters so such injuries do not require epic quests.

** Even though he's been losing his powers, Castiel still held faith in his Father until late in season 5 when Joshua, the one angel who does talk to God, reveals that God [[spoiler:doesn't care about the apocalypse and has no intentions of stopping it or helping anyone]] at which point Cas snaps completely.
** However, at the end of Swan Song, [[spoiler: Cas's angel mojo has been restored as has his faith in God. In fact, he's received additional powers from God.]]

* After ATasteOfPower in the prologue, the Horseman of War in ''{{Darksiders}}'' is stripped of nearly all of his powers by his superiors after being accused of prematurely triggering the Apocalypse. The rest of the game is spent finding out who is really responsible while rebuilding War's power (and then some since he gets new weapons too).

[[caption-width-right:283:How do you reassemble an angel?]]

[[BattleAngelAlita http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/title_broken_angel_pix.jpg]]
[[caption-width:283:How do you reassemble an angel?]]

Many fantasy creatures are, well, ''[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment fantastic]].'' Whether a sphinx, dragon, or [[ClockworkCreature steam powered robot beetle]]; whether [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot practically human]], incomprehensible or pure evil, these creatures can elicit a sense of wonder and terror in any observer.

Now imagine someone took a sledgehammer to that marvel and left it bleeding and broken on the floor.

That is the Broken Angel, a fantastic creature that has been crippled in their fantastic. This can take many forms: the titular angel with broken wings, broken horned unicorns, newly mortal elves (or any other immortal being), magicless wizards, robots whose body is centimeters from going offline, etc. When played for drama, this is usually used to evoke deep sadness. This is a [[WhatMeasureIsANonUnique unique]], beautiful creature that has been cruelly torn asunder. Not even killed, but left alive to suffer being flawed after having been "perfect" or at least whole. As you can imagine, a ''lot'' of {{Fallen Hero}}es have this as a backstory.

When one is killed you can expect the killers (even if they're heroes) to lament destroying something that is [[AKindOfOne one of a kind]]. If it was the LastOfHisKind, this serves a double whammy by signaling the EndOfAnAge: there will be no more like it, ''ever.'' If a villain is the one doing the killing or crippling, they haven't just [[KickTheDog Kicked The Unicorn]], they broke off the horn and [[MoralEventHorizon stabbed it to death with it]].

[[caption-width:283:How do you put divinity back together?]]