History Main / BrokenAngel

* ''ComicBook/TheFilth'' gives us Secret Original, a GoldenAge superhero who came into reality, and now is a wheelchair-bound cripple.

--> ''"Killing angels may seem like a repulsive business. And it is. To kill them you need cold blood. Many can't stand it and go mad or [[DrivenToSuicide kill themselves]]. But an angel hunter was born for this business. We are marked beings. We can't escape fate."''

* There is a broken angel housed in the NERV basement in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', it's the one nailed to a cross. Also, [[spoiler:the [[HalfHumanHybrid part-Angel]] Rei]] might possibly count... [[MetaphoricallyTrue metaphorically speaking]]. For that matter, so could [[spoiler:Kaworu]] and all the [=EVAs=] depending on which interpretation you take. So does the literal "broken Angel" from the second ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' movie which was captured and experimented with until its bones were stripped bare of flesh.

On the positive side, they may be able to [[GoodThingYouCanHeal heal naturally]], get repaired, [[RedemptionQuest seek redemption]] or FindTheCure. However the story presents a way to make the "fantastic" be restorable, finding the cure will be a quest in and of itself. If the Broken Angel is found by a GoodSamaritan, they'll get some help to this end by [[BatmanInMyBasement being hidden and nursed back to health]]. Of course, there will be danger from those who did the breaking coming, or from locals with TorchesAndPitchforks out to finish the job.

** In the beginning of the final season we see that a similar fate has befell [[spoiler:Michael, Lucifer's twin brother. After being the BigBad of the previous season, constantly backstabbing and even killing some of his own siblings in order to become [[AGodIAm the new God]], he is now scrubbing hell's floors while sporting the wounds of having his wings cut off. Not that he didn't deserve it]].

* Farrago in ''Webcomic/{{Jack|DavidHopkins}}'' spends quite some time as one.

* The Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian story "Literature/TheTowerOfTheElephant" has such a creature, who is also an EldritchAbomination -- but one who is basically good and has been cruelly mistreated and exploited.

* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', the protagonists notice that a dragon-shaped rock has gone missing. They speculate that maybe someone has revived a dragon that was imprisoned in stone. [[spoiler: Turns out, no, it's a basilisk, which is about as intelligent as a dog, while dragons are human-level sentient.]] And then, which is the ''real'' twist of the story, [[spoiler: Oreg comes back after Ward killed him -- turns out the body that was killed was not his real one, and he's half dragon, but couldn't shift into that form while he was enslaved and bound to castle Hurog.]]

* Brom, the aged Dragon Rider from Christopher Paolini's ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'', lost nearly all of his power when his dragon Saphira was killed. Oromis, Brom's fellow Rider, lost nearly all of his physical and magical prowess due to an unknown injury and is nicknamed "The Cripple Who is Whole."
* Eva Ibbotson's ''Literature/IslandOfTheAunts'' has the titular aunts care for all sorts of magical creatures that are incapacitated. Their patients include some mermaids, who got into an oil spill, and lost their mermaid-typical beauty as a result.
* Creator/PeterSBeagle's ''Literature/TheLastUnicorn'' which features the eponymous unicorn being turned into a human girl to save her life. Shmendrick the magician is very happy he managed to do this because his magic worked and he saved her life. Molly, who knows more about unicorns, is horrified:
--> "What have you done? ''What have you done?!'' You've trapped her in a human body! She'll go mad!"

--> "What have you done to me? I'm a unicorn...I'm a unicorn!"\\
"But I'm afraid of this human body. More than I was of the red bull...''afraid.'' "

*** In the animated version at least, the ending implies she will remain a broken angel even returned to her Unicorn form. [[ThePowerOfLove Having known love,]] she has to [[WhoWantsToLiveForever live out the rest of her immortal life capable of feeling regret]] (Unicorns being too pure to feel such a human emotion normally).

* Ray Cummings' ''TamaOfTheLightCountry'' (written in 1930) is about a young Mercutian woman leading a revolt against a hideous law laid down by the wingless males who run the government. Women on Mercury are born with wings -- but when they marry, the wings have to come off. As in hacked off without anesthesia. There are several moving descriptions of the victims.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' has [[spoiler:the Nightsong, Dame Aylin, the SemiDivine aasimar daughter of the GodOfTheMoon Selune. For a century she was tortured and imprisoned by her EvilAunt the GodOfDarkness Shar, while simultaneously [[PoweredByAForsakenChild having her powers leeched from her]] by the GodOfTheDead Myrkul's [[TheChosenOne Chosen]], Ketheric Thorm. TokenEvilTeammate Shadowheart's questline has her decide whether to have a HeelFaceTurn and free her, or cross the MoralEventHorizon and put her down for good]].

* Aerie in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'', a WingedHumanoid whose wings were hacked off and burned.

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': While earlier editions depicted them as a race of fiends on their own, 5th edition retconned the [[HellishHorse Nightmare]] to be pegasi that have had their wings ripped off in a vile ritual.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIduMaW6SaI The video]] for "Charlotte" by Kittie.

%%* ''Haunted'' of Kelley Armstrong's ''Literature/TheOtherworld'' series has Janah, an angel who was driven insane by the Nix.%%Does she become mundane? If not, it doesn't count.

* The Mexican graphic novel ''Operación Bolivar'' by Edgar Clemens, stars a man who, being born with the ability of seeing and touching angels, works as an angel hunter, since their body parts are good for a very wide array of uses (the meat is medicinal, the eyes can be used in robotics, the feathers make you an amazing writer, the bones are powdered into an incredibly potent drug, etc). The story deals with a GovernmentConspiracy to turn the angel-hunting business into mass production in an attempt to overcome the Asian intrusion on the same market with dragon body parts. In the story's introduction he narrates how terrible killing such majestic creatures is:

** The ''Fanfic/TriptychContinuum'' iterations of Moon and Sun are unimaginably advanced, apparently sapient fabrials created (presumably) by an unknown pre-Discordant civilization to provide light and heat to the world of Menajeria. They are also suffering from what amounts to severe brain damage as a result of Discord's abuse, and are incapable of safely controlling their own orbits without Celestia and/or Princess Luna to provide them with access to an undamaged mind.

* The [[GameMod ROM Hack]] ''VideoGame/PokemonClover'' features the Ruined Regi Trio, which are the legendary [[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Regi Trio]] in what seems to be a decayed and undead state: Regirock has turned into Regirode, with huge chunks of its body missing and looking mismatched thanks to unsucsessful attempts to rebuild itself with any stones it can find, Regice turned into Regimelt, whose whole head and part of his arms have completely melted away and Registeel turned into Regirust, who is so rusted away that it has lost one arm and two legs and the only arm remaining is barely holding on via a few wires. In adition to their original Rock, Ice and Steel types, they all now recieve a secondary Ghost-type.

* The titular character of ''Series/{{Lucifer}}'' has his wings cut off and sports rather nasty scars on his back. [[spoiler: He ends up growing them back as the series progresses]].
** In the begining of the final season we see that a similar fate has befell [[spoiler: Michael, Lucifer's twin brother. After being the BigBad of the previous season, constantly backstabbing and even killing some of his own siblings in order to become [[AGodIAm the new God]], he is now scrubbing hell's floors while sporting the wounds of having his wings cut off. Not that he didn't deserve it]].
* In the ''Series/MastersOfHorror'' episode "Cigarette Burns", the main character encounters a pale, gaunt, vaguely male figure with healed stumps at its shoulder blades kept by a deranged art collector. It is strongly implied that this was the angel that was mutilated in ''La fin absolue du monde'', the short film that the protagonist seeks. As revealed by the SnuffFilm director Dalibor, the sheer sacrilege of this act was the key to the late Bakovic's success and turned his film into a madness-inducing ArtifactOfDeath.

* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' has a hurt, formless creature in the episode "Meat".

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' has Celty, a [[HeadlessHorseman dullahan]] who's lost her disembodied head (along with all the memories in it) some twenty years ago and still feels incomplete without it.

* Angel from ''Franchise/XMen'' has had this happen to him various times in various continuities.
** In the original comics, he has his wings cut off by a villain, leading to a period of depression. Apocalypse convinces him to do a FaceHeelTurn by promising to "give them back"... by upgrading him into the angel of death with metal wings. And eventually he manages to heal and regrow his wings naturally.
* In the more traditional terms of this trope, we have the Acanti, a race of SpaceWhale that have been enslaved by the Brood for generations. At least one arc of ''Uncanny Franchise/XMen'' in the '80s revolved around saving them.

* The Mexican graphic novel ''Operación Bolivar'' by Edgar Clemens, stars a man who, being born with the ability of seeing and touching angels, works as an angel hunter, since their body parts are good for a very wide array of uses (the meat is medicinal, the eyes can be used in robotics, the feathers make you an amazing writer, the bones are powdered into an incredibly potent drug, etc). In the story's introduction he narrates how terrible killing such majestic creatures is:

* ''Literature/LostVoices'': If a mermaid's tail is out of the water for more than a few seconds, it will start to transform into a pair of legs. The process is so horrifically painful that most beached mermaids die of shock. [[spoiler:At the end of the first book, Miriam commits suicide by dragging herself onto a beach.]]

* In ''Franchise/DisneyFairies: Secret of the Wings'', Tinker Bell has her wings damaged to the point of being unable to fly when crossing over into the country/season of Winter (since her wings can't hold up in cold weather). It's supposed to be impossible to cure, but her twin ends up being a work-around to that. There's a story told earlier in the film about a Winter fairy that had his wings damaged while courting a Spring fairy. When the Winter fairy telling Periwinkle the story turns away from her at the end, we see that he's been telling his own story; his wings are missing.

* The [[spoiler: Organization]] in ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'' was revealed to have two captured ''dragon people'' in their basement, which they all but ''harvested''. The sight of those undoubtedly majestic beings who look like some streamlined science-fiction monsters being chained, hooked up to tubes with half their bodies missing is certainly a textbook example, especially considering how they were being [[AndIMustScream kept just barely alive]] so their flesh remains fresh for the various uses they have for it... [[spoiler:Fortunately Miria grants them a MercyKill.]]

* In the first ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'' movie, [[spoiler:Motoko]] takes on an enemy one number too big for her and ends up ruining her mechanical body by [[HeroicRROD overexerting herself]], leaving her limbs shattered. Helpless, half-naked and unable to move, she makes for quite a sad sight.
* ''Anime/HeartCatchPrettyCure'' applies the trope to a more recent sort of fantasy being with Yuri, a [[MagicalGirlWarrior formerly-magical girl]].

** There's also the [[spoiler:Forest God]] in ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'', appearing as [[spoiler:spritely and other-worldy stag with a vaguely anthropomorphic face that spreads life and fertility in its wake -- basically a combination of a unicorn-like creature, a {{youkai}} and a {{primordial}} god. Until some fool cuts off its head, that is, at which point the body becomes a EldritchAbomination, mindlessly showering decay and destruction on epic scale until it is reunited with its head.]]

* In ''Franchise/DisneyFairies: Secret of the Wings'', Tinker Bell has her wings damaged to the point of being unable to fly when crossing over into the country/season of Winter (since her wings can't hold up in cold weather). It's supposed to be impossible to cure, but her twin ends up being a work-around to that.
** There's a story told earlier in the film about a Winter fairy that had his wings damaged while courting a Spring fairy. When the Winter fairy telling Periwinkle the story turns away from her at the end, we see that he's been telling his own story; his wings are missing.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLastUnicorn'' [[spoiler: the titular unicorn becomes this after she in transformed in to the human woman, Amalthea, after bumbling amateur magician Schmindreck uses WildMagic in a desperate attempt to rescue her from the Red Bull (the villain's PetMonstrosity that [[TheyHaveTheScent hunts and captures unicorns]]. Although saved from the fate of the rest of the unicorns and still extremely graceful and beautiful for a human, the transformation into any mortal being, let alone a human, is extremely horrific and traumatizing for her, especially at first, and presented as something that has trapped a being of an ethereal nature in the form of a decaying and ill-suited mortal body, with various psychological and spiritual consequences.]]
** And when she eventually ''is'' turned back, she [[spoiler:remains a more figurative example; Unicorns are stated to be pure, immortal beings and, by their very nature, untouched by emotions like regret, longing, or grief. But her experience as a human being (who fell in love) has left Amalthea capable of these feelings. And now she will have to feel them ''forever''.]]
** Inverted in Mommy Fortuna's menagerie of "mystical beings", which are actually mostly fakes, being pitiful animals that she casts {{glamour}}s on, so that they appear as legendary beasts to those who want to see as much. The only real fantastic creatures in the caravan are the unicorn and the Harpy, who [[spoiler:[[ItsPersonal has mommy Fortuna's number]]]].

* ''Uncle Einar Has Big Green Wings'' by Creator/RayBradbury is a similar story. Einar Elliott normally flies at night so he won't attract attention, but after running into electrical wires, his night vision/radar is damaged, perhaps permanently. His kids come up with an ingenious solution.

* One of the more depressing files in the ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' is of a Pegasus whose wings have been removed and refuses to eat as a result. [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1481 SCP-1481]] starts out funny, being a stoner genie. It quickly becomes sad when he reveals that a previous master [[KickTheDog wished him to be like this and made it irreversible]].

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman'':

* The fourth book of ''Literature/TheTeialsOfApollo'' sees Commodus and Caligula ride into Camp Jupiter on a chariot pulled by two horses. Apollo then realizes with horror and fury that they're not horses, they're ''pegasi who had their wings cut off''.