A massive flying creature made of energy, commonly a predatory bird made of fire, is a common visual metaphor for Limit Breaks, fast transportation and other special abilities. Or just making you look that much more badass. Dragons, moths and other winged creature shapes may also be used, up to Winged Humanoid. The origin of this trope seems to come from The Phoenix. If it's not the Phoenix, it's this.
In symbolism as applied to the wings this, just like other fire-based powers, usually given to Hot-Blooded and/or very powerful beings, whether "demonic" (Balrog), "angelic" (Archangel Gabriel) or otherwise.
Not to be confused with the equally badass food that is hot wings. Or, for that matter, with an attractive character who just happens to have wings.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Cardcaptor Sakura, the Fiery card takes the form of a young boy with flaming bird wings.
- In Destiny of the Shrine Maiden, Tsubasa's mech has glowing energy wings.
- ShineGreymon Burst Mode in Digimon Data Squad and Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time.
- Fairy Tail: When Natsu gets powerful enough, he can manifest giant wings made of fire, and sometimes even a dragon-shaped aura of flames.
- Suzaku in Fushigi Yuugi, in both his humanoid and bestial forms. Justified as he is The Phoenix.
- GaoGaiGar: King J-Der's J-Quath, a bow-shaped weapon that transforms into a vaguely bird-shaped ray that pierces enemies and extracts their cores. Topped in the OVA by the J-Phoenix, in which the entire (ship-sized) robot turns into a giant, much clearer phoenix, complete with a beak/mouth and peacock plumes. "In flame, the phoenix... IS REBORN!". The J-Phoenix also doubles as being a Dangerous Forbidden Technique, since even the villain stated that smashing your ship right into the opponent's is generally considered suicidal. Also, a variant exists in the Plasma Wing that both J-Der and King J-Der are equipped with, which gives the Humongous Mecha wings... made of plasma.
- Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (aka Robotech: The New Generation): When the Inbit/Invid leave Earth, they take the form of a huge energy Phoenix.
- The Gundam franchise has a few of these:
- Victory Gundam: V-2 Victory Gundam has "Wings of Light" which cut enemies apart. And can extend to kilometers in length.
- Gundam SEED: Freedom Gundam has a form with these.
- Gundam SEED Destiny Destiny Gundam also has such a form.
- ∀ Gundam: The Turn A and Turn X both have the ultimate Hot Wings: Moonlight Butterfly.
- The Phenex family of Devils in High School D×D can manifest these, among other phoenix-related powers.
- In K's movie Missing Kings and second season Return of Kings, Anna Kushina, the new Red King, can manifest a pair of fiery wings.
- Signum from Lyrical Nanoha gets these when unisoned with Agito. Since she can fly already, it's mostly shorthand for the sheer amount of destruction she's about to lay down.
- The mature form of Saffron, the king of the bird people from Ranma ½, is a Winged Humanoid who can rip off his own wings, throw them like giant flaming shuriken, and then instantly regenerate the lost wings in a burst of flame.
- Sailor Moon: Sailor Mars' Fire Soul Bird attack.
- Saint Seiya: Phoenix Ikki almost always appears with a fiery, phoenix shaped aura. His most powerful attack always manifests as a phoenix in one shape or another.
- Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The God Phoenix maneuver. Good for moving in a hurry. Bad if you happen to be in front of it, as many a Monster of the Week found out the hard way.
- Shakugan no Shana: Shana earns a sweet pair of fire wings relatively early on.
- Sunred's Super Mode Firebird Form in Tentai Senshi Sunred consists of a pair of massive fiery wings.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: When The Winged Dragon of Ra goes out of mechanical-gryphon mode, it takes the form of a bird made out of fire.
Comic Books
- Supergirl:
- Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade: Flaming wings sprout from Supergirl's back in the final battle against the Big Bad.
- In Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Kara gains flame wings to battle a space dragon after being exposed to Red Kryptonite's metamorphic radiation.
- Both of these are probably Mythology Gags to Supergirl (1996), in which Linda Danvers/Supergirl manifests flaming wings in her role as the Earth Angel of Fire.
- Kara's friend Thalia Ak-Var's Flamebird powers in New Krypton sometimes manifest as this, initially as a Red Herring that she might be Linda. Kara herself wears armor with wings that glow with energy when she takes on the Flamebird identity in the One Year Later era.
- In What If? vol 2 #114, in which the heroes remain trapped on Battleworld from Secret Wars (1984) and eventually have kids, this (along with shrinking) is the power of Matthew Storm, son of the Human Torch and the Wasp, who calls himself Firefly.
- X-Men: Jean Grey, commonly known as Phoenix often sheaths herself in a fiery bird-shaped aura when she flies, or just really cuts loose. Her daughter Rachel Summers does the same after taking on the Phoenix mantle and in later comics depicted as blue flames instead of yellow.
Fan Works
- Child of the Storm has Phoenix hosts manifest the typical fiery bird-shaped aura.
- Children of an Elder God: Asuka gained pyrokinesis and flame wings after killing a good number of Eldritch Abominations.
Asuka soared through the night on wings of flame.
- Sunset Shimmer gains these after her ascension to godhood in Oversaturation.
Films — Animation
- The Firebird from Fantasia 2000 has these, because it is made of fire.
- In Hercules, Hades recruits the eagle that regularly eats Prometheus' liver and grants him this ability.
- Sunset Shimmer from My Little Pony: Equestria Girls gains these in her post-Rainbow Rocks music video "My Past is Not Today", illustrating her change from evil to good and her subsequent desire to make herself new. Her previously released "Time to Shine" doll also featured these.
Films — Live-Action
- In the film version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the Phoenix on the side of La Résistance ignites itself into flames and then razes the ground to create a fiery barrier.
- Rodan from Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) has fiery embers emanating from his wings, apparently leaking from "veins" in the molten rock that covers his skin. In several scenes, this gives off the visual effect of the edges of his wings (and tail) being on fire.
- The Balrog in The Lord of the Rings had bony wings wreathed in smoke and shadow.
Literature
- The Seraphim in Daughter of Smoke and Bone have these.
- This dates back from the depiction of Seraphim in The Bible: a six-winged fiery Eldritch Abomination representing God's love, which use their wings to cover themselves from disintegrating whoever gaze upon them.
- The Hunger Games: Several of the outfits Cinna designs for Katniss incorporate this in tribute to her nicknames, "The Girl on Fire" and the "Mockingjay", the latter of which is a symbol of rebellion against the Capitol. President Snow is not amused.
Live-Action TV
- Kamen Rider:
- Kamen Rider OOO: OOO's TaJaDol Combo has multiple finishing moves, one of which is the "Magna Blaze" Giga Scan (activated via inserting three red Core Medals and four Cell Medals into the Taja Spinner), surrounding him in a flaming phoenix-like aura (including extended wings) to destroy a target.
- Super Sentai:
- Choujin Sentai Jetman: The Jet Machines' combined Icarus Haken form can perform the Jet Phoenix attack, which envelops it in a flaming, phoenix-like aura (including extended wings) before it flies through the target to destroy it.
- Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: With the Jetman's Greater Power, the Gokaigers are able to perform the Gokai Jet Phoenix attack (identical to the original Jet Phoenix finisher), either while in the form of the Jetman themselves or through GokaiOh.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Oriental Adventures supplement has a fire wings spell that turns the user's arms into phoenix-like flaming wings, allowing them to fly and burning everything close by, though the caster is protected.
- Dragonlance has the phaethons, a race of humanoids who can freely manifest wings of fire they can use for flight or in combat. They claim to be descended from the god Habbakuk, also known as the Blue Phoenix. A rare few phaethons feel a call to fly skyward toward the sun at some point in their lives, becoming celestial beings with even more impressive fiery wingspans.
- The 4th Edition sorcerer Arcane Wellspring Paragon Path can give a character these.
- Asuras are celestials that resemble humans with wings made of fire and a bird of prey's talons for feet. When confronted with evil they like to fearlessly swoop in to use their fiery wings as weapons.
- In Magic: The Gathering, a lot of dragons and phoenixes have these, naturally, and Leap of Flame
◊ gives you them.
- Pathfinder:
- Peris are good-aligned outsiders descended from fallen angels, with flaming wings signifying their dual ancestry in Hell and Heaven. They're loosely based on a creature from Iranian mythology.
- The archangel Ragathiel, a minor god, is the child of the fire goddess Feronia and the archdevil Dispater. He has wings of fire and presides over righteous wrath.
- Peris are good-aligned outsiders descended from fallen angels, with flaming wings signifying their dual ancestry in Hell and Heaven. They're loosely based on a creature from Iranian mythology.
Video Games
- Flaming Wings are common to see any Free-to-Play MMORPG which makes its money by selling Cosmetic items for cash, and are usually in high demand and fetch a high price if the game allows players to sell cash items to one another with in-game currency.
- Lilith sprouts a set when her aptly-named Phoenix ability triggers in Borderlands.
- The Archangel Imperius has them in Diablo III.
- In Dota 2, the hero "Phoenix" is an avatar of a sun and is thus made entirely from fire.
- In most Final Fantasy games where The Phoenix appears as a Summoned Monster, it usually just rises from the flames but has otherwise non-flaming wings. But in Final Fantasy V, where it made its first appearance, its entire body is enveloped in fire.
- And in Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, there's a fire bird enemy actually named "Hot Wings".
- In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade and Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, Fire Dragons have wings composed of solid flame in both manakete, and dragon form.
- Kid Icarus: Uprising: The Power of Flight causes Pit's wings to light up. Under normal circumstances, 'light up' is meant in the holy sense, but on two occasions (three counting a Non-Standard Game Over) it's in the combustive sense. This. Is. NOT. Good.
- Kirby:
- In Kirby's Epic Yarn (a punny game in the first place), the phoenix boss of Hot Land is actually named Hot Wings (yet it's not the Trope Namer).
- Also, one of the bosses in Kirby: Squeak Squad is an owl with fiery wings and a raccoon tail, called Bohboh.
- The Legend of Dragoon loves this trope- while Dart transforms, his wings are formed of fire. Most of his special attacks cause this as well.
- Lorwolf: The Ignatius companion is a phoenix-like bird with bright orange feathers that appear to have embers coming off them. Its plumes are described in its Flavor Text as looking like solar flares.
- The Sky Attack move is portrayed this way in Pokémon Stadium. It helps a lot that the Pokemon doing the attack usually is a bird, or at least can fly.
- Don't forget that whole Ho-Oh thing mentioned above, either.
- Or Moltres, at least in one appearance.
- The move Brave Bird is also portrayed this way in the anime.
- Gigantamax Charizard has wings entirely made of fire.
- Runes of Magic gives a spell to mages named Phoenix that allows them to summon a flaming bird to attack all enemies in a straight line.
- Shovel Knight has the Birders, some kind of blue energy falcon.
- Night Terror, the Superboss of Soulcalibur III has wings made of orange energy.
- The Cybuster of the Super Robot Wars series has an attack called the Akashic Buster, where it launches a bird of fire at the enemy, transforms into its own avian form and merges with the firebird, slamming into the target at high speeds.
- Likewise, its Evil Counterpart Shurouga has Ley Buster, although it doesn't create a bird-like fire, it changes into something like a bird (like Cybuster's Cybird), covered with dark power and rams the opponent and... produces several interesting revelations...
- The Angelg has a variant, called the Phantom Phoenix, which launches an energy arrow that turns into a fire bird.
- This is actually preceded by Elbulls from Super Robot Wars 64, in which it's a bird-shaped mecha, and rams the enemy, Akashic Buster style.
- And the Valhawk's Heat Edge Exploder in Super Robot Wars W.
- Also Dairaioh's Jinrai from Super Robot Wars Alpha 3, which is a hybrid of this and a Rider Kick.
- Super Smash Bros.: Most of Captain Falcon's special attacks in the series invoke a flaming falcon. Especially the infamous "Falcon... PUNCH!"
- A common swordsman's or fighter's tech in the Tales Series ("Hououtenku" in Japanese, translated to English variously with the word "Phoenix" somewhere in it) allows the combatant to jump in the air, then dive diagonally towards the enemy wreathed in a fiery, bird-shaped aura.
- In Tekken 7, Kazumi Mishima gains phoenix-like fiery wings when she transforms into her Devil form.
- Flame wings are among the many usable wings in Terraria.
- In Them's Fightin' Herds, the half-dragon Longma race, including the playable character Tianhuo, can fly with wings of fire.
- In Touhou Project, the Hourai Elixir-powered Fujiwara no Mokou often uses Phoenix-shaped Danmaku, and is surrounded by a phoenix-shaped Battle Aura whenever she resurrects or uses a spellcard. She's often portrayed in fanworks with the ability to cause huge Hot Wings to blaze into existance behind her.
- World of Warcraft
- Deathwing, the Big Bad of Cataclysm, is an enormous Draconic Abomination made of metal and lava. His wings are covered in fire, and wherever he flies he leaves destruction beneath him and burns the sky red.
- During the Alysrazor encounter, players can collect her shed feathers to gain a speed buff, the ability to cast while moving, and flight.
- Xenoblade Chronicles X: The Ares 90 Skell produces phoenix wings while flying.
Web Animation
- Kiki from Fairy Foxes has a tendency to set her wings ablaze when she is angry, euphoric, or using her fire powers.
Webcomics
- Antimony from Gunnerkrigg Court, going on with her basic nature and The Phoenix metaphor of her life, during her summer in the Gillitie Wood learned to spread these. While for normal sight it's just a subtle wings-shaped blur in the air, albeit with quite impressive span, for etheric vision she can look like a Winged Humanoid... melded with firestorm.
- Plume has the artifact called the Mask of Seraphim, which gives the wearer seven pairs of fiery wings.
Western Animation
- ReBoot: In the episode "Game Over", the User's avatar in the Mortal Kombat-like game is a Big Red Devil with fire wings.
