Angel-Devil Shipping



We all know the appeal of Mind Game Ship, playing another person's mind like it's a game and what not, but this trope can go hand in hand with that one. Take two characters: one sweet, innocent, kind, loving, naive, maybe even virginal, etc. In other words: a angel. The second character is malicious, Jerkass-ish, possibly perverted (sometimes even a rapist), seductive, sadistic, etc. In other words: a devil. Then you pair them up with each other. The main aspect here lies in the fact that the Devil character can do all sorts of things to torment the Angel character and in the end the two characters will fall in love despite everything or perhaps because of everything (or not if the pairing is one-sided)

Sometimes for this trope in fanfic a previously tough character may be made into a more sensitive innocent character and vice versa.

May overlap with Foe Yay. Compare Beast and Beauty. Sometimes a I Have You Now, My Pretty scenario may occur from the devil to the angel. A Bastard Boyfriend, Depraved Bisexual, Depraved Homosexual, Psycho Lesbian, or a Yandere may be the devil.

Generally, a combination of Mind Game Ship and Opposites Attract, with a dash of Victim Falls For Rapist / Draco in Leather Pants, depending on whether the 'ship is canon or not. In Slash Fic or some yaoi the Uke is sometimes the angel while the Seme is the devil.

Sometimes the devil character may try to force another rebellious character to submit and become the angel.

Anime and Manga

 * This happens literally in too many doujinshi manga to count.
 * Tohru/Akito from Fruits Basket, Akito being the 'devil' as s/he is a Domestic Abuser and Tohru being the 'angel' as she redeems with love. One could make an argument for a Tohru/Shigure ship as Shigure's character is morally ambiguous.
 * Also Tohru/Black Haru.
 * Pretty much defines Hatsumi's and Ryoki's relationship in Hot Gimmick.
 * Tsuna/Hibari, Tsuna/Byakuran, and Tsuna/Mukuro in Katekyo Hitman Reborn. As well as Chrome/Mukuro, and Chrome/Glo Xinia.
 * Chrome/Belphegor, Tsuna/Belphegor, and Uni/Byakuran exists too.
 * Melfina/Harry from Outlaw Star. It's actually canon on Harry's side.
 * Usagi/Prince Diamond from Sailor Moon.
 * Generally, any Russia pairing will be this in Axis Powers Hetalia, most notably Lithuania/Russia.
 * A good chuck of Taiwan/Japan, which is pretty popular for a het pairing, is set during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, and so tends to fall into this category.
 * Seeing as how France regularly molests and gropes the other nations male or female any pairing involving him can sometimes turn out to be this.
 * Orihime/Grimmjow or Orihime/Aizen in Bleach.
 * To a lesser extent, Orihime/Ulquiorra.
 * Momo/Gin or Momo/Aizen exists, too.
 * In fanfics where Ichigo is made to be a sensitive Uke he can be involved in this if he is shipped with Grimmow, Gin, Hollow Ichigo, or Aizen.
 * When paired with anyone Nnoitra (devil) gets this. Orihime and Nel are frequently paired with him possibly due to several suggestive scenes they have with him in canon.
 * Yako/Neuro in Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro.
 * Ritsuka/Seimei in Loveless.
 * Daisuke/Krad in D.N.Angel. There's also some Daisuke/Dark interpretations in fanfics and Daisuke/Satoshi shows up in canon and fanfiction as well.
 * Albert and the Count in Gankutsuou.
 * Light/Anyone in Death Note, but especially Misa or L, though L has usually been Uke-fied in such instances because it isn't really canon for him to just sit back and let Light screw with him, he can do plenty of mind screwing himself.
 * Beyond Birthday/Anyone exists as well.
 * Tenma/Johan and Nina/Johan from Monster.
 * Tsuzuki/Muraki from Yami no Matsuei.
 * In Naruto fanfiction we have Naruto/Itachi, Naruto/Kabuto, Naruto/Orochimaru, Naruto/Sasuke, generally Naruto/any villain considering his sweet naive Messiah Nice Guy nature. Also, Naruto/Sai at times.
 * Sakura/Sasuke fanfic of this nature exists as well.
 * Naruto/Karin exists too.
 * Xelloss/Filia in Light Novel/Slayers, as Xelloss is part of the Monster Race, which feeds off dark emotions, and Fillia is a priestess of light.
 * Ichigo/Kisshu from Tokyo Mew Mew.
 * Akiyoshi/Naruse from the yaoi manga Kawaii Akuma.
 * Hino and Yunoki of Kiniro no Corda.
 * Vincent Nightray of Pandora Hearts has a bit of this going on with everyone, but especially with his brother Gil and Ada.
 * Miyuki and Wolfrun from Smile Pretty Cure.
 * Black Butler's Sebastian is a seductive demon who is the devil to anyone really in both canon and fanfics.
 * Ciel and Alois can get this treatment in fanfics.
 * Misao and Kyo in Black Bird.
 * Yuki (angel) paired with any villain in The Betrayal Knows My Name.
 * Played fairly canon in No 6 with all the Ho Yay between Shion (angel) and Nezumi (devil).
 * Akio in Revolutionary Girl Utena actively seeks to be the devil in all his relationships, be they with males or females.
 * Riki and Iason to some extent in Ai no Kusabi.
 * Kagetora and Naoe in Mirage of Blaze.
 * The Ginji/Ban pairing in Get Backers.
 * Mahou Sensei Negima gives us Setsuna/Tsukuyomi (which is canon on Tsukuyomi's side) as well as Negi/Tsukuyomi.
 * In D Gray Man Slash Fic this is sometimes the case with Allen/Tyki and Allen/Kanda.
 * Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu features Shrinking Violet Fuyuka and Natsuki "the She-Wolf".
 * Ayase and Kanou from Okane ga Nai are a textbook case of this.
 * In some Yu-Gi-Oh Slash Fic Yugi is often made to be the sensitive Uke to Yami Yugi's Bastard Boyfriend.
 * During the Eclipse in Berserk Casca is made into the angel for  as he.
 * Aoshika/Haguro in Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest is a particularly disturbing pairing as he actually does.
 * Kaze to Ki no Uta: Serge (angel) and Gilbert (devil).
 * Girls Bravo's Koyomi and Fukuyama.
 * Shuurei to Sa Sakujun in Saiunkoku Monogatari.
 * Gender flipped in Neon Genesis Evangelion where plenty of Shinji/Asuka fanfiction portray them as having this type of relationship. In canon, they're attracted to each other though Asuka sometimes flirts aggressively with the very shy Shinji and Shinji ultimately ends up.
 * In Fullmetal Alchemist Slash Fic Ed is sometimes made to be the angel to either Envy or Roy.
 * Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Sayaka and Kyouko are angel and devil, respectively. But the angel is an insane Knight Templar and the devil has a certain soft spot.
 * Madoka and Homura too.
 * In Hellsing there's the Seras/Alucard pairing.
 * Maka/Giriko in Soul Eater with Giriko targeting Maka and wanting to rape and kill her. And then there's Chrona/Medusa.
 * Masataka/Souma and Masataka/Katsuragi in Sakura Gari.
 * Yukiteru (angel) and Yuno (devil and epic Yandere) in Mirai Nikki.
 * Taki and Klaus in Hyakujitsu no Bara.

Film

 * Lisa and Rippner in Red Eye, until Lisa takes a level in badass and.
 * Charles and Erik from X Men First Class tend to get portrayed this way in fanfic.

Literature

 * Violet/Count Olaf in A Series of Unfortunate Events.
 * Ginny/Tom Riddle in the second Harry Potter book.
 * Harry, Neville and Hermione with just about any Death Eater or DE-in-training. Harry/Draco and Hermione/Draco have twice the fanfiction written than either of their Weasley canon love interests, Ginny and Ron... Maybe Ron should become a Death Eater.
 * Christine Daae to Erik of The Phantom of the Opera depending on the version and/or interpretation.
 * Quite literally, Aziraphale/Crowley in Good Omens fandom.
 * Subverted in that they are actually Not So Different.
 * With all the Ho Yay they have, Gerald Tarrant and Damien Vryce from the Coldfire Trilogy. The former is a demon/vampire, and the latter is a priest.
 * Christopher Carrion and Princess Boa from Abarat would've been this; he's from the lands of Night, and she's from the lands of Day.

Live Action TV

 * Beecher/Keller in Oz which is actually canon slash.
 * Jane/Hoyt in Rizzoli and Isles during the episodes Hoyt was on the show when he instilled within her a sense of fear and making her feel vulnerable.

Video Games

 * The Legend of Zelda: Link and Dark Link, Link and Ganon, Link and Ghirahim. And none of them canon.
 * Bowser and Peach, especially since Paper Mario, when it was first known that Bowser has feelings for her.
 * Laharl/Flonne from the first Disgaea is a literal example (albeit with a Noble Demon). There's also Flonne/Etna for non-canon ships as well.
 * Some of the fandom like to pair Cosmos with Chaos from Dissidia Final Fantasy. They'er actually not to far off.
 * In Togainu no Chi Shiki tries to be the devil to Akira's angel.

Web Comics

 * Homestuck has Tavros, who is frequently shipped with either Vriska or . The funny thing is that both are at least halfway canon.

Web Original

 * Happy Tree Friends: Evil!Flippy and Flaky.

Western Animation

 * This trope is one reason the Bubbles/Him pairing is so popular from Powerpuff Girls.
 * The Aang/Azula pairing on Avatar: The Last Airbender.
 * And to a lesser degree, due to the former's Heel Face Revolving Door, Zuko and Katara.
 * It's Sequel Series gives us Korra/Amon. Amon is a creepy mind rapist who's able to reduce the normally badass Korra to tears through psychological torture.
 * Butters/Cartman or Kyle/Cartman in South Park.
 * Belle/Gaston in Beauty and The Beast.
 * The titular Stimpy and Ren from The Ren and Stimpy Show.
 * In the Teen Titans episode "Birthmark" Raven is made into the angel for Slade's devil during his highly suggestive pursuit and mind rape of her which for the first time instills in her a sense of terror.
 * Twilight/Discord in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic.