Holy Halo

Every deity should have one!^note Or Bodhisattva in this guy's case

"The halo is a purely optical illusion, produced by moisture in the air, in the manner of a rainbow; but the aureola is conferred as a sign of superior sanctity, in the same way as a bishop's mitre, or the Pope's tiara. In the painting of the Nativity, by Szedgkin, a pious artist of Pesth, not only do the Virgin and the Child wear the nimbus, but an ass nibbling hay from the sacred manger is similarly decorated and, to his lasting honor be it said, appears to bear his unaccustomed dignity with a truly saintly grace."

— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Either a gold ring floating over someone's head, or the more traditional shimmer of light like someone is holding a flashlight behind a character's head. In fiction (and lots of classical art), halos are basically synonymous with holiness and extreme good. It means you're either God, a non-denominational equivalent, an angel, a saint, a buddha, the Messianic Archetype or a soul of the dearly departed in Fluffy Cloud Heaven (the real Heaven isn't quite so tacky). Although the term "halo" only dates back to the 17th century the trope itself is ancient, in the middle-ages it was known as the corona gloriae ("crown of glory") in Europe. While in the West it is associated with Christian iconography, halos are also a part of Muslim, Buddhist, and other religious art. Traditionally, the presence of a halo on someone in art means they are inhabited with the Holy Spirit because of their great virtue.

Therefore, anyone with a halo is usually chosen to, either by a deity or the cosmos in general. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that anyone with a halo hovering overhead is also likely very, very powerful — Power Glows, after all. Either as a pre-requisite to appearing or a side effect of being chosen by on-high, the character will be capable of miracles... and kicking butt! Expect it to be associated with Elemental Powers of Light and/or Holy, and cause fear and pain to the evil in their presence. Exceptions of course are when Light Is Not Good, and the decidedly evil character (maybe a fallen or One-Winged Angel?) decides to ape the good guys as a way to mock them.

Holiness aside, some characters can wear an "artificial" halo without ever being remotely religious or even spiritual. Energy powered Super Heroes (and Super Villains) may create Battle Auras around their head (or entire body) related to their power, like Green Lantern or Apollo. Interestingly, robotic characters may be built with mechanical halos that can shoot Reverse Shrapnel, or double as Deflector Shields. Further, evil characters may create "negative" halos of darkness around themselves, paired with Face Framed in Shadow along with Glowing Eyes of Doom and a red Throat Light.

Often paired with Power Gives You Wings, Anti-Gravity Clothing (when the halo is a floating circlet).

See also Unusual Halo for non-standard halo designs and their connotations for their bearers.

A Sub-Trope of Power Glows and Sister Trope to Holy Backlight, Battle Aura and Shawl Of Divinity. See also Background Halo, when this is an Invoked Trope. Contrast Horned Humanoid. Not to Be Confused with the video game series Halo, although the parallels are intentional.

This item is available in the Trope Co. catalog.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Dead characters in Dragon Ball are typically depicted with halos when in the afterlife, or when brought back to the living world temporarily. This was established in the Fortuneteller Baba saga, when Grandpa Gohan was brought back in this manner to have a chance to spar with Goku; Goku himself came back in this manner during the Buu Saga, and later Vegeta was sent back after his failed Heroic Sacrifice (both were resurrected, while Gohan remained dead). The short-lived Toonzai broadcast of Dragon Ball Z Kai, however, changed the halos into "orbs".
  • In Dragon Ball Super, Angels such as Whis have blue halos that float either around their necks or behind their heads. Fused Zamasu has a double white halo behind his head and shoulders. Also, Frieza sports a regular halo during the Tournament of Power, having been brought back from Hell to fight in Majin Buu's stead on behalf of Universe 7.
• The halos in Haibane Renmei appear to be artificial, created by a blacksmith. It's created by putting substance called "light leaves" in a ring-shaped frying pan, and heating it over an oven until it melts and takes uniform shape. No special training is required, but only the Renmei know where the raw material comes from. Normally it will stick above a Haibane's head as soon as it's placed, but Rakka requires a silly-looking "holder" because hers keeps falling off at first.
• At one point in FLCL, Haruko briefly affixes a fake halo made of wire to her head. They later reappear on Canti.
• In the Director's Cut and Platinum version (as well as in the manga) of Neon Genesis Evangelion, when possessed by Armisael (which starts off as what looks like a giant halo, making this a double pointer), Unit 00 is shown growing a fleshy tumorous mass along its back which incorporates the shapes of almost all the previous Angels they have battled. Then, for a moment the Eva raises in the air and turns into an all white, naked, Rei, that appeared to resemble Lilith, with a halo over her head just prior to exploding.
  • In the Rebuild of Evangelion, some of the Angels form a halo-like ring around themselves when they use their AT-field for specific actions, such as floating.
  • Rebuilds 1.11 and 2.22 give all the Angels a halo at some point or another. Sometimes it's only visible for a second, on at least one occasion it actually served a practical purpose beyond simply looking cool, but it always looked quite creepy. Rebuild 3.0 continues the trend: whenever something has a halo, it can fly under its own power and houses immense power. Examples include Unit 01 sprouting a halo during its "fight" against Zeruel and expanding it into a vortex that the third film reveals to have been Third Impact, the Wunder briefly manifesting a concentric pair of halos beneath the ship when it first takes off, the Mark.06 flickering a faint halo just before Rei decapitates it, the SEELE-controlled Mark.09 having a single halo for flight and finally Unit 13 growing a double halo when it enters the same state Unit 01 was in, then the same Eva manifesting a third halo that expands into the same vortex Unit 01 had, except much bigger. Whew!
  • Based on previous appearances, the "halo" is the manifestation of the Angel's ultimate power: An energy-condensation field, spinning all matter in its wake into pure energy. If the halo belongs to an Eva and the Eva's pilot loses emotional self-control, the halo turns into the Door of Guf that can wipe out all other life within its range or, if given enough time to expand, the entire world.
• The angels in Bludgeoning Angel Dokurochan have halos that are only atoms wide and thus, very sharp. Like, "slice off all your fingers upon grabbing," sharp. Additionally, removing the halo causes... stomach issues.
• The halos in Dropkick on My Devil are the power sources of angels, but they are easy to break (and easy to steal). If an angel loses their halo, they lose their powers, and if stranded in the human realm, they aren't able to come back to the heavenly realm. Pekola, Poporon and Pino all lose their halos at separate occasions and are all trapped in the human realm and have no choice but to live and work like humans until they get their chance to return home.
• Parodied in Urusei Yatsura. When trickster monk Cherry dispenses a nugget of pop wisdom, everyone is awed and looks in reverence at the shining halo around him, thinking him a saint despite his past. Then Ataru points out in outrage that it's just the light reflecting off Cherry's bald skull.
• El from Shugo Chara! (because she resembles an angel).
• From The World God Only Knows, Tenri manifests one whenever Diana takes control.
• From A Certain Magical Index, most of the angel-type characters (like Hyoka, Gabriel and Aiwass) and espers that have reached Angel-level (like Accelerator and Kakine).
• Even Gundam is not immune: the Zanscare Empire in Victory Gundam uses a halo motif on several of its superweapons near the end, particularly the Zanneck mobile suit and the Angel Halo satellite weapon. Of course, it's a subversion of the general symbolism, as Zanscare are not particularly nice people.
• The Stargazer Gundam provides another example. Also unusually for this trope the halo serves a practical purpose as well acting as it's propulsion by generating a massive solar sail.
• Meroko gets a halo at the end of Full Moon when she becomes an angel.
• Ginka Shirokane from Day Break Illusion has one as part of her Magical Girl outfit. Turns out it's more symbolic than it originally seems.
• My Monster Secret: Shirogane Karen is a Fallen Angel. Just not a very good one.. Except that in reality it's strongly implied that she's still a normal angel who only believes she's fallen because she lost (as in, physically misplaced) her halo. Akane took it and is using it as a lightbulb in the Student Council room.
• High School D×D: Angels naturally have these, with high-ranked ones having more than one.
  • Cao Cao upon releasing his Sub-Species Balance Breaker for the True Longinus manifests a divine halo that floats behind him.
• Makima in Chainsaw Man creates one of these out of her own brain matter during the battle with Gun Devil. It's both mocking her opponent's attempts to kill her and the final indicator that she isn't human.

Arts

• Every painting of Christ in the Sistine Chapel shows a circle of light behind his head, with the brightest of them all being the full-body halo of The Last Judgement.
• In order to emphasize the scene's realism, The Last Supper gives none of the Apostles halos and only gives Jesus an obscured Background Halo. This deviates from every other depiction of the Last Supper before this, which saw halos as essential to convey the saintliness of those attending the dinner, especially to contrast Judas, who was never given a halo, from the other Apostles.
• Statue of Liberty: Her crown gives off seven rays that act as a type of halo, showing Liberty's fundamental role in human life. The concept of freedom is the only goddess humans should worship.
• Played with by Keith Thompson in his artwork such as Apollonian Wight, The Collect, and Damned 04.

Comic Books

• Apollo, The Cape of The Authority, has one of these. Justified by his solar powers: the halo gets dimmer when he's weaker, and glows brightest when he's just had a good bask in the sun. Or, to put it another way: that's not a halo; that's lens flare.

Comic Strips

• British comic Augusta plays with this in one strip.
  Augusta: [our cute young heroine, to a man she meets who's wearing a halo] Is it hard to get one of those?
  Man: Bloody hard.
  [the halo vanishes; in the next panel they are seen looking for it under the sofa]
• In the 1980s The Perishers introduced Dirty McSquirty, a character who never bathes and is always surrounded by a halo of flies.

Fan Works

• In the Pony POV Series, the spirits of Saints are shown to get these after their deaths. This includes Dark World Applebloom and Sweet Heart.
• In Dead-Eyed Tsuna, Hibari is frequently surrounded by light, though its less a symbol of his holiness and more so symbolism of Tsuna's terror worship towards him, is even lampshaded!

Films — Animation

• In some Hanuman and its Spinoff The Return of Hanuman artworks Maruti/Hanuman is depicted with this.
• In Turning Red, Meilin Lee's distant ancestor Sun Yee has one when she appears on the astral plane. Justified, as she's the woman in the family who directly received the Red Panda Blessing from the Gods.

Films — Live-Action

• In silent film Civilization, Count Ferdinand develops an actual halo while talking to the king and his advisors. Why? Because Ferdinand has literally been possessed by Jesus, who has come back to earth to preach that war is evil and wrong.
• Lampshaded in The Hudsucker Proxy, as the late Mr. Hudsucker points out his halo (aptly spinning in the style of a hula hoop) and calls it a "fad" with the boys upstairs.
• Parodied in Mel Brooks' History of the World Part I. Leonardo da Vinci shows up at the Last Supper to paint his portrait of Jesus and the disciples; the halo behind Jesus's head is revealed to actually be a large platter that a waiter happened to be holding up at the moment da Vinci asked everyone to hold their pose.
• Inverted and played for laughs in Bedazzled when Elizabeth Hurley's Devil tries on different outfits. She ends up looking like an angel, complete with wings and halo but is quick to point out that it's "just a Halloween costume."
• In Jacob's Ladder, the main character looks up at his chiropractor and notes that, with his lamp shining above his head, the chiropractor looks just like an angel. It turns out the chiropractor is an angel.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • In Thor: Ragnarok, the ceiling painting above the throne room depicts all members of the royal family with halos to highlight their divinity. Like other part of the pictures, the halos are moving thanks to Asgardian Magitek.
  • Captain Marvel: As Carol looks down on Yon-Rogg for the final time, fully realized as one of the most powerful beings in the universe and a force for good, the sun is behind her giving her a halo effect around her head.
• This Is the End: The characters who manage to reach Heaven at the end of the film acquire stereotypical angel halos, which spark if bumped against each other.

Literature

• In Sixth Column, the Scam Religion set up by the protagonists to fool the PanAsian occupiers includes a full set of priestly garb, complete with staff. The staff is a very sophisticated piece of Applied Phlebotinum which includes among its minor powers the ability to project a holographic halo over the priest's head.
• In The Dresden Files:
  • Changes when Karrin Murphy draws a holy sword to fight powerful, ancient vampires, Harry releases his spirit friend Bob to protect Murphy from the mental assaults by said vampires. Bob whirls around the person's head with a golden radiance, giving them the appearance of a halo.
  • Skin Game Archangel Uriel's halo is glimpsed at when he is sufficiently angered by a mortal before him. The bright light is something Harry averts his eyes from looking upon for looking into the light showed him all his wrong choices he ever made in his life and how easy it would have been to just make the right one. Nicodemus Archleon, said mortal who is angering Uriel, looks on without flinching.
• Second Apocalypse: Anasurimbor Kellhus, who cons most of the world into believing that he is their prophesied messiah to unite them against their very real enemies, occasionally seems to have halos around his hands. Kellhus himself notes them and doesn't understand what they are.
• "The Misguided Halo" is a short fantasy story in which a character gets a halo by mistake. Most of the story consists of him trying to get rid of it (the general reaction of people who do see it is that he's playing some kind of practical joke on them).
• The Belgariad: Belgarath the Sorcerer conjures one up for himself, tilted rakishly over one ear, when he wants to dispel any doubts as to his identity. He is a Living Legend and an Emissary from the Divine, but the position doesn't naturally come with a halo, and he's the first to admit that the "Holy Belgarath" epithet is a gross mischaracterization.
• Others: In Hell, a murky realm of timeless remorse, two visiting angels, seemingly as a spiritual shield, shine brilliant auras - which, for the benefit of whom they're visiting, they dim slightly.

Live-Action TV

• In the Doctor Who episode "Voyage of the Damned", angel robots are the waiters on the Titanic IN SPACE!. When the bad guy reprograms them for killing, they pluckeoff their halos (to use as instruments of death), which leaves behind the mounts — which now look like horns.
• Good Omens (2019): In Season 2, the angel Aziraphale uses his halo in self-defense to neutralize dozens of demons attacking him. The effect is so strong that it's considered an act of war.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): At the beginning of "...After the Phantoms of Your Former Self", the painting◊ by Marius de Romanus which hangs in the dining room of Louis de Pointe du Lac's Dubai penthouse depicts Christ with rays of light around his head.
• A halo of monarch butterflies is the symbol of kingship in Kings. Silas Benjamin has a Running Gag of a heavily embellished story of when he was crowned with the butterflies, but what kick-starts the plot is when a heroic kid named David who rescued the Crown Prince from the enemy is crowned by the butterflies.
• The Twilight Zone (1959): In the episode "A Passage for Trumpet", John Anderson pauses in the dark hallway to identify himself to Jack Klugman as "Gabe" (short for Gabriel, of course). The sole light in the hallway is directly over his head, forming a perfect halo. Clever effect!
• The angels of Touched by an Angel, when revealing themselves to humans, simply maintained the same basic appearance they'd had throughout the episode but were bathed in a golden glow.
• The Angels in Supernatural are confirmed to have them in season 8 when a Nephilim says she can see a halo on Castiel's head, but like their wings they are invisible when they're in their human hosts on Earth.

Magazines

• Analog: The January 1941 cover has an enormous human-like figure with a bright circle of light around their head. Their entire body glows with the same light as the halo.

Myths & Religion

• The Wandjina deities of Western Australia have peculiar halos of feathers and lightning in cave art (which some idiots interpret as evidence of Ancient Astronauts, misidentifying the halos as helmets). Seeing as some of these date up to 5000 years before Christ, Older Than Dirt.
• The Trope Codifier seems to be the Christian art canon, where any holy person or being tended to be drawn with a halo. Christian paintings from late Antiquity on often have halos around Jesus/the Virgin Mary/Holy Figure of Choice's head. An early distinction was to show living people with square haloes◊, and the sanctified dead with round ones. More than a few paintings of God give Him a triangular, rather than circular, halo, to represent the Holy Trinity. Christ is distinguished by a halo encircling a cross. The almond shaped mandorla sometimes surrounds the entire body of God or the Virgin Mary. The early Renaissance made a distinction between the full round halo given to saints, and rays of light given to beati. In the High Renaissance, the fascination with perspective encouraged artists to create the hoop-shaped haloes that assumed a distressing materiality in later artists, and led to the "halo on a stick" version beloved by the comic artist.
  • An alternative approach is Moses, who typically lacks a halo but is depicted with two flames sprouting, hornlike, from his forehead. This is because St. Jerome in the Latin Vulgate Bible used the uncommon word cornutus (="shining") in translating Exodus 34:29. (Most likely the Latin word, as well as the Hebrew word קָרַן it translated, referred to the spiky appearance of rays of light), but later readers read it as literally derived from cornu, and translated it "horned." (This Danish depiction◊ from ca. 1325) shows Moses with halo and horns.)
• the Biblical root of the halo lies in the account of the Transfiguration of Jesus. (Matthew 17:1–8, Mark 9:2–8, Luke 9:28–36) The Gospel account relates that Christ went up a mountain and communed directly with people in Heaven. The biblical account tells us that Jesus became a radiant being of light; the line about "his face (and head) shone like the sun" may well be the starting-point for haloes in Christian iconography.
  1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. (Matthew 17 :1-2)
  • The popularity of Halos in Western religious art was, at least in part, to function as Speech Bubbles, putting the prayers of angels or famous Papal quotations as written text on the Halo itself.
• In Muslim art canon, Muhammad's head is often replaced by flames, if he is depicted at all. However, this rule is not universal.
• Buddha is often shown with a fiery halo in Buddhist art.
• Older Than They Think: Most people think halos as we know them originated in Christian art but late Egyptian religious paintings had gilded round halos, which represented the celestial bodies associated with those gods (e.g., Horus -> Sun and Moon).
  • There were "halos" in the Tanakh/Old Testament Bible but they were neither golden rings nor shiny backdrops. They were rainbows deep inside clouds of fire as described by Ezekiel.
• Greek sun god Helios was always depicted with a halo. Aspects of Helios were later merged with Apollo, who was also sometimes depicted with a halo when in his solar form.
• The aura, or astral body, asserted to exist by mystics, occultists and those of a New Age disposition, is described as a full-body halo, either a shape that closely follows the contours of the body it envelops, or else as an oval of light surrounding the body.

Tabletop Games

• With its Gothic art style, it's no surprise halos pop up in Warhammer 40,000.
  • The Emperor is always depicted with one, even in works set prior to his deification.^note Granted, the emperor was always a raging narcisist who had no problems being viewed as on par with the Abrahamic god as long as no one actually worshipped him
  • Other powerful psykers and Living Saints end up with coronas of light as well — possibly justified as a visual display of psychic energy.
  • Mention also must be made of Space Marine personal force-field generators called Iron Halos, half-circles of gold or silver typically mounted on a commander's backpack to frame his head.
  • Even thoroughly evil Chaos Marine characters and daemons sometimes have halos, to show their piety, honour and devotion to their infernal masters. Usually these are shaped to echo the eight-pointed star of chaos, which is the universal symbol of the Chaos Powers.
• Now the Fantasy side of things is getting in on the halo action, with the Stormcast Eternals from Warhammer: Age of Sigmar often having solid metal halos behind their heads, especially the heroes.
• The Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Book of Exalted Deeds offers the exalted feats "Nimbus of Light" and "Holy Radiance". Nimbus of Light provides illumination and help interact with good creatures. Holy Radiance is a more powerful form, the light hurting The Undead. Those taking a Vow of Poverty are considered very likely to pick both sooner or later, as they're getting free exalted feats, and not that many are worthwhile.
  • Subverted with the recurring Ioun Stones magic item, which circle around the head of the user. They are named after a goddess, but other than that have no holy connotations, and can be used by anyone.

Video Games

• In some Animal Crossing games, you can buy a halo from the tailors to wear on your head.
• Played with by Angelia Avallone from Arcana Heart, who is a total brat and uses her halo as a throwing weapon.
• In Arknights, people of the Sankta race have glowing yellow halos above their heads, since they are based on Abrahamic angels. Exusiai isn't particularly fond of hers as she can't wear hats because of it.
• Most of the gods in Asura's Wrath have them. The title character himself has one that seems to evolve the stronger he gets.
  • Chakravartin has a halo made up of thousands of arms.
• Given to the enemies in Bayonetta, which makes sense, as they're angels. The stronger the angel, the more elaborate the halo becomes.
  • Father Rodin will sport a halo when fighting him. Interestingly (and intimidatingly), his halo is the same one that Jubileus wears.
  • You also collect halos as in-game currency. These halos are the usual gold rings (seem familiar?) rather than the elaborate ones worn by the angels.
• Bendy and the Ink Machine has Alice Angel and the versions of her. The original cartoon character has a halo because she's an angel. Susie, as a version of Alice, has a halo because she looks like Alice, but the halo is broken and Susie is psychotically evil. Allison Angel wears an intact halo around her head like a headband, and she also has a glowing one floating over her head if she is viewed through the seeing tool - she is much nicer than Susie.
• The Binding of Isaac has two. The Halo is a simple gold circle that hovers over a character's head and increases all of their statistics, while the Mitre surrounds their head with a yellow spiky radiance, and increases the chance for soul hearts to drop.
• BoxxyQuest: The Shifted Spires: The enemies that wear these, Underaged Female Users, seem to be basically angels, with Gold and White Are Divine from their Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold, assumption, their white clothes, and their yellow, golden presumably, horn, and being Winged Humanoids, and their Healing Hands skill of Handheart.
• Halos are a purchasable costume item during the Valentines Event in City of Heroes. There is a regular shiny golden "good" halo and then the "naughty" halo which looks like it is made of semi-molten iron and always on fire.
• In the Doom mod Angelic Waifus, all angels have a golden halo above their head. As the angel takes damage, her halo begins to fade and disappears upon death.
• A promotional artwork of Mundus from the first Devil May Cry game depicts him with a bright halo behind his head.
• Ubiquitous among the Alto Angelos, Sanctus, The Savior, Sanctus Diabolica, and The False Savior from Devil May Cry 4. Though given the Order of the Sword's sinister backstory and involvement with demon experiments, these are actually horns, spikes, and/or incomplete circles shaped like halos.
• Eternal Senia: For angelic-type enemies:
  • Eternal Senia: Cherubs, the strongest type of Angel, have yellow glowing ones.
  • Eternal Senia: Hydrangea After The Rain: Angelsheep have a halo, and they are called Angelsheep.
• Maxing out the positive end of the Karma Meter in the Fable series will get you one of these, among other changes. The halo isn't always visible, though; it's particularly hard to see in the day.
• In several Final Fantasy games like Final Fantasy X, a halo appears over an ally when they have the Auto-Life spell on them. Considering it allows them to come back from the dead...
  • Final Fantasy VIII: All three Gardens have halos which hover above them and turn into anti-gravity engines when activated. Only Balamb and Galbadia Gardens actually get to activate theirs, as Trabia Garden is obliterated before its staff figured out how to activate it.
• Gaia Online: Played with. The Angelic Halo plays the trope straight, but there's also an evil halo, and several that are simply there to look pretty.
• Galaxy Angel: the interior of the cockpit of each emblem frame has what appears to be a halo above the pilot's heads. The emblem frames are dependent on their pilot's emotional states in what's even called the Halo System. Although technological the imagery is certainly envoked.
• Gauntlet 64: Haloes are a powerup that lets you steal life energy from the Death enemies. If you beat the game, you will wear it at all times.
• Inkulinati: Haloes are gained by standing under the clouds of Heaven, praying, or being blessed by the player or by a bishop creature, and grant stat bonuses to their bearers. Up to three levels of halo can be gained; when the maximum is reached, the Beast is considered anointed, will cause enemies that strike it to become heretics, and will be able to deal increased damage to heretics and Devils. In an inversion, black haloes are gained by striking a bishop or a three-haloed Beast, and mark their bearers as heretics and make them extra-vulnerable to the attacks of the holy.
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: After Link has defeated Twinrova, Kotake and Koume still want to do battle, only to realize they are dead when the halos appear. The halos are played for comedic purposes as both are unapologetically evil. Cue the twins arguing over how old they are before departing into the afterlife, though not before threatening to come back to haunt Link.
• Many JRPGs will include halos as part of either the "dead" status (World of Mana) or the "revive" spell (Final Fantasy).
• The Maid of Fairewell Heights: A halo is part of the Angel costume.
• Messiah: A sparkling halo hovers above the head of Bob the angel; it is also used as a visual indicator of who is he possessing right now. People possessed by Satan's imps have a red, horned halo displayed above their head.
• Namu Amida Butsu! -UTENA-: Dainichi Nyorai has one behind his head. It's a solid object that can be taken off and put on at will and will leave him completely powerless once it's off him.
  • Bishamonten also has one, but it's in the shape of a wheel.
• Advocate angels in Nexus Clash get a halo that invokes Holy Is Not Safe and rather quickly burns anyone who strikes the angel to a crisp.
• While not strictly a halo, the Fire Tablet artifact in Ōkami creates a circle the sun's corona around Amaterasu when equipped... and gives her a nice damage reduction to fire and immunity to Lethal Lava Land.
• Persona 5: Played with. The Big Bad, styled after an interpretation of God Is Evil from Gnosticism, has a circle of golden angel wings floating over his head. Similarly, the Protagonists ultimate Guardian Entity, himself the Devil / another name for God in Gnosticism, has a circle of black demon wings floating over his head.
• Shedinja from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.
• Senran Kagura: Estival Versus:
  • Ryōki, the older and somewhat dead sister of Ryōbi and Ryōna, has a glowing halo above her head.
  • In the beginning of the game, the Gessen girls believed Yozakura mysteriously got a halo after saying something profound, and discussed it for a while. It turned out it was a glowing ball of light that teleported them to the island the rest of the game takes place.
• Played straight (or, as it turns out, not so straight) in Tales of Symphonia.
  • The angelic light spirit Rem in other Tales games often has one. If the Raise Dead spell summons an actual angel, that one too. (The one in Tales of Eternia was Mint with a halo.)
• The Cheater's Lament in Team Fortress 2 (though that one is of the "obviously fake halo" subtype, with the wire holding up said halo being blatantly visible from all angles).
• In World of Warcraft several of the high level priest and paladin armors create halos. There's also an item that grants essentially a halo made of fire, for mages or warlocks.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2: The Artifices, massive robotic superweapons that the Aegises control, have halos representing their power. Yes, even the giant robot snake.
• Xenogears also plays with halos, giving them to ethereal enemies appropriately named Seraphs.
• Starships frequently have halos in Xenosaga, specifically the Dämmerung, Durandal, and Prodigium. Several types of Gnosis enemies also have halos, albiet broken ones.
• Anubis gets one at the end of Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, as part of its transformation into Aumaan Anubis, complete with hovering hexagons resembling wings and a "holy light" (which is actually Metatron). Furthermore, its idle stance has Anubis spread its arms. Notice the symbolism here?

Web Animation

• Dungeons & Doodles: Tales from the Tables: A glowing halo briefly appears over Angela the paladin's head when she performs a smite attack.
• Madness Combat: A golden halo is part of Jebus' signature look. Subverted when his first appearance establishes him as a superpowered Ax-Crazy maniac. The halo turns out to be an Amplifier Artifact, which causes no end of trouble when the Big Bad claims it for himself. For him, it turns blood-red.

Web Comics

• Ava Ire from Ava's Demon gains a Holy Halo once she accepts her curse and starts kicking ass. Zig-zagged in that while Ava is the host of a Physical God, said god happens to be Wrathia Bellarmina, meaning that the Halo comes complete with a Mark of the Beast pattern and a pair of demonic horns.
• Reliquary uses an interesting example of this in Alcolla's angel form: hovering spikes and letters.
• Brawl in the Family shows Dedede mimicking the effect by tilting his head back to expose the yellow rim of his hat.
• In Slightly Damned, angelic halos are a form of Battle Aura resembling rings of white flame. They only manifest on angels who have earned the second of the three pendants.
• The gods of Holystone have these in varying designs and colors.
• In Kill Six Billion Demons, fiery haloes manifest naturally over the heads of people who have particularly refined Enlightenment Superpowers, especially in moments of great intent or emotional clarity. This is because they’re an extension of the inner fire of one’s soul. Most notably, the seven God-Emperor Demiurges each sport a unique halo. They have nothing to do with goodness, to say the least.
• Girl Genius: Queen Albia, Her Undying Majesty, has little constant about her appearance outside of her hovering halo of glowing stars, and even this is slightly altered when she reveals a bit of just how dangerously sparky she could be with her very magic like abilities and power.
• Ghostblade: Members of the Feathered Race (aka Angels) have large halos of metal.
• El Goonish Shive: In the "Parable" storyline, which is a spoof of Fable, a halo is used as part of a angel-based Character Model Karma Meter of Good Morality, and as part of its symbol for when that has been achieved.
• Lotus Cobra Is Evil: A Winged Humanoid wearing one is named as an angel in "Angel Beats"◊, but the halo differences between types are noted in "Induce Despair"◊.
• The Handbook of Heroes: Paladin is an aasimar, and the yellow halo hovering above his head hints of his celestial heritage. Although after his fall from grace, the halo tends to flicker.

Web Original

• Codex Inversus: Holy cows, sacred cattle descended from the kine of Heaven, have horns that, during adolescence, grow together to form a smooth, halo-like shape.

Western Animation

• In the Webster cartoon series, the titular character was an angel who would become fully human merely by taking off his halo and squeezing it into his pocket, and then back into an angel by putting it over his head. The halo itself was a solid object, for all intents and purposes acting like a metal ring. The main villain's primary goal was to steal it for some reason.
• Seen on the Cutie Mark Crusaders in the "Stare Master" episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, each time Fluttershy referred to them as "these sweet little angels."
  • In "Keep Calm and Flutter On," Discord gives himself one after being called out on flooding Sweet Apple Acres. "Who, me?"
• In the King of the Hill episode "Wings of the Dope," Luanne's ex-boyfriend Buckley (killed in a propane explosion) visits her as an angel. He does not wear a halo until the final scene, in which he pulls one from his back pocket and puts it over his head as he walks away.
• In an episode of Rocko's Modern Life, the ferocious and mischievous Earl the bulldog gets adopted by the Bigheads. In one scene he produces a halo over his head when Bev asks him to "play nice" with Ed, then as soon as her back is turned he takes a bite out of the halo, causing it to turn into a pair of devil horns.
• In one episode of Kaeloo, Mr. Cat puts on a halo when pretending to be innocent of a crime.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: A couple of murals depicts Mandalorian crusaders from the distant past with halos around their heads while fighting grotesque figures supposed to represent the Jedi. This is an historical nod to Crusaders being in depicted in art◊ in the same way against Muslims.
• Back when The Fairly OddParents! was a series of shorts on Oh Yeah! Cartoons, Vicky would get a halo when pretending to be nice. Naturally, it would disappear when Timmy's parents left the house.
• In South Park, Jesus has one, which usually just floats above his head without being remarked upon. In The Spirit of Christmas he actually throws it to knock the hat off of the murderous Frosty's head, rendering it immobile.
• The title character of the CBeebies series Angelmouse has one. If he fails to act angelic, it wobbles and shrinks.
• Parodied in the Futurama episode "Hell is Other Robots." To escape Robot Hell, Bender snatches a pair of metal wings from a demonic robot moth, who shoots rings of light at him, Fry, and Leela as they fly out of Hell. One ring gets caught on Bender's antennae, making him look like an angel (complete with a "Hallelujah" choir playing in the background).
• Angels in Hazbin Hotel have these. This includes Sir Pentious when he arrives in heaven.
• Downplayed in The Owl House. Luz's Titan form in the Grand Finale includes a single glowing light orb floating over her head reminiscent of the ones that she can summon with her glyphs. This serves as a halo to solidify her role as a Messianic Archetype, showing how she both metaphorically and literally brings light to the Boiling Isles and cleanses it of Belos's corruption.
• Angel Wars: The angels themselves do not have these, but the aesthetic of glowing metal rings is a common feature on their vehicles.

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