Holy Halo

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Every time bellring.mp3 plays, an angelbot gets its halo.
"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

In fiction, halos are basically synonymous with holiness and extreme good. It means you're either a God (or a non-denominational equivalent), an angel, a saint, the Messianic Archetype or a Soul of the dearly departed in Fluffy Cloud Heaven (the real Heaven isn't quite so tacky). This is of course because of the religious connotations with Catholic Christian religious iconography, despite the fact that 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.

Note that "halo," used to denote the visible sign of sanctity, dates back no earlier than the mid-17th century—and indeed nearly all the terms used to denote this phenomenon are modern. The middle ages referred to this merely as the corona gloriae ("crown of glory") or more simply "the glory."

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 Aura's around their head (or entire body) related to their power, like Green Lantern or Apollo. Interestingly, robotic characters may be built with mechanical halo's that can shoot Reverse Shrapnel, or double as Deflector Shields. Further, evil characters may create "negative" halo's 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).

A Sub-Trope of Power Glows and Sister Trope to Holy Backlight and Battle Aura. See also Background Halo, when this is an Invoked Trope. Contrast Horned Humanoid. Not to be confused with the video game Halo.

This item is available in the Trope Co catalog.

Examples of Holy Halo include:


Anime and Manga

  • Dead characters in Dragonball Z tend to wear halos when in the afterlife, or if they, like Goku of the Majin Buu saga, return to Earth without being resurrected by the Dragon Balls.
    • Turned to orbs for some reason in an English dub.
  • The halos in Haibane Renmei appear to be artificial, created by a blacksmith, and need to be held on by a device until they "stick" and hover over the Haibane's head.
    • Only in Rakka's case. According to the flashbacks, on most Haibane it normally sticks right away. Incidentally, 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.
      • And Rakka.
  • 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 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.
    • In Rebuild 2.0 Unit 01 gets a halo when it goes into its god mode (this seems to freak everyone out, as 01 is now showing some very blatant Angel traits). Unit 06 gets one while it hovers down from the moon. In the preview for Rebuild 3.0, Unit 08 is shown hovering over a halo projected off its back.
    • 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. Beyond a certain point, that halo can evolve into a continent-spanning field wiping out all other life within its range.
  • 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.
  • 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 Only God 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.
  • Meroko gets a halo at the end of Full Moon o Sagashite when she Becomes an angel.

Comic Books

  • Apollo, The Cape (trope) 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.

Film

  • Lampshaded in The Hudsucker Proxy, as the late Mr. Hudsucker points out his halo and calls it a "fad" with the boys upstairs.
  • Parodied in Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part 1. 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 some Hanuman and its Spin-Off The Return of Hanuman artworks Maruti/Hanuman is depicted with this.

Live Action TV

Newspaper Comics

  • 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.

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, while 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.

Video Games

  • In the more recent Animal Crossing games, you can buy a halo from the Able Sisters to wear on your head.
  • In Gauntlet 64, they 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.
  • While not strictly a halo, the Fire Tablet artifact in Okami creates a circle the the sun's corona around Amaterasu when equipped... and gives her a nice damage reduction to fire and immunity to Lethal Lava Land.
  • 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?
  • Ubiquitous among the villains of Devil May Cry.
    • Though, most of them are actually horns in a halo shape.
  • Starships frequently have halos in Xenosaga, specifically the Dämmerung, Durandal, and Prodigium. Several types of Gnosis enemies also have halos, albiet broken ones.
  • Xenogears also plays with halos, giving them to ethereal enemies appropriately named Seraphs.
  • Many JRPGs will include halos as part of either the "dead" status (World of Mana) or the "revive" spell (Final Fantasy).
  • Oddly subverted by Gaia Online. The Angelic Halo plays the trope straight, but there's also an evil halo, and several that are simply there to look pretty.
  • 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.)
  • 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 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.
  • 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...
    • In 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.
  • Given to the enemies in Bayonetta, which makes sense, as they're angels. The stronger the angel, the more elaborate the halo becomes.
  • Infamously, 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).
  • 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.
  • Angelia Avallone from Arcana Heart
  • Shedinja from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.
  • Most of the gods in Asura's Wrath have them, even the title character himself (though it's pretty hard to spot). Check out this pic and 2:57
  • 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 evoked.
  • Kenny the angel in Divekick sports a halo.

Web Comics

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 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.

Real Life

  • 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/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 XXXIV. xxix. (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 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 replaced by flames, if he is depicted at all.
  • 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-Moon).
  • 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.
  1. ↑ so sepia-and-white only
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