Power Gives You Wings

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Of course Magical Girls would have matching wings.
"Where the hell do Safer Sephiroth's wings come from in Final Fantasy VII's final battle? Jenova? Lifestream? JRPG villain garage sale?"
—The Rise and Fall of Final Fantasy

If an android, Humongous Mecha, Powered Armor, Mon, Magic Knight, Magical Girl, or basically any super-powered individual gets a power up, or starts out really powerful and wants it to show, they will have wings.

Specifically, feathery white angelic wings, even for villains! (Though they might only have the one.) Wings made of Hard Light or Pure Energy are also popular; expect them to be Color Coded for Your Convenience. These wings will of course allow the character to fly, float, and glow, all without needing to flap them! If the cast already has a character with a pair and he's been surpassed, the surpasser will have two pairs of wings. To differentiate what sort of wings your newly-powered-up character has gained, see Good Wings, Evil Wings.

Sometimes part of a Frilly Upgrade. Often paired with a Holy Halo, just for the imagery. Which you can enjoy here!

The title is a play on the Red Bull slogan "Red Bull Gives you Wings!"

This item is available in the Trope Co catalog.

Examples of Power Gives You Wings include:

Advertising

  • The Trope Namer is the famous ad campaign for Red Bull; "Red Bull gives you wiiiiiings!"

Anime and Manga

  • Used in Angelic Layer, where the most powerful Deus had an Angel that could spontaneously grow wings. By the end of the series, so could the protagonist - but only in the anime.
  • In Gundam SEED Destiny, whenever the titular Gundam pulls out its BFS, its hard not to notice what its "Wings Of Light" (har har) resemble...
    • This trope may be also the reason why the most powerful Gundams in Cosmic Era have physical wings in their design. I'm talking about Freedom and Strike Freedom here...
    • The Victory 2 from Victory Gundam was the first one with "Wings of Light", which were actually both practical and far more powerful than the Destiny's.
    • The Turn a Gundam and Turn X have butterfly wings made of nanomachines. They destroy CIVILIZATIONS.
    • Let's not forget the batwings on Deathscythe Hell...
    • Or the angel wings on Wing Zero Custom for that matter. Probably inspired by the Victory 2, if you think about it.
    • The 0 Gundam at the very beginning of Gundam 00 has this one going for it by the bucketload. Then again, angels are a very theme of the whole series.
  • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Hayate sprouts six black wings when she unisons with Reinforce, and Signum gains wings of fire when she unisons with Agito.
    • And while Nanoha herself doesn't do this, her staff Raising Heart does, the number and size of the wings it sprouts for any given spell are a good rough indicator of just how much someone's going to get hurt. Subaru's Mach Caliber has Gear Excellion, which is a blue version of Nanoha's and she uses it against her older sister Ginga, who's been Brainwashed by Scaglietti as a Number.
  • Sailor Moon has wings during her second transformation; for about 3 seconds before they disappear in a burst of feathers.
    • She also has wings on her Eternal fuku, but these appear to be purely decorative along with her Frilly Upgrade. Later on, when it's time for the final battle, she grows real wings. Her opponent, Sailor Galaxia, slightly subverts this trope and grows demon wings.
      • In the manga, every soldier can grow wings and fly in space, apparently. Moon, ChibiChibi, the Starlights, and Kakyuu at least do. I can't remember if the Sol senshi do at any point.[please verify]
  • Tenchi Muyo!, where Tenchi and Juraian warships have the Light Hawk Wings.
  • In the Trigun anime finale, Vash's and Knives' Angel Arms are unleashed to the maximum level, and spontaneously sprout wings.
  • In the first Yes! Precure 5 movie, the team becomes Super Precure 5 and grows butterfly wings. In the second, the leader becomes Shining Cure Dream, with feathery wings.
    • The movies of other series tend to give wings to the mains for their Super Mode.
  • The Divine Cloths of the Saints in Saint Seiya are more powerful and winged versions of their normal armours.
    • No need to go as far as that. Every single time (particularly in the movies) Seiya's Cosmo burns bright enough to make him a real threat to the latest Big Bad, he somehow summons the Sagittarius armor to him to replace the Pegasus Cloth. The wings, golden halo, and bow and arrow seem designed to inspire an angelic symbolism.
  • A Certain Magical Index:
    • Accelerator, the strongest esper, sprouts black wings after being forced into a desperate situation. He eventually gains the ability to produce white wings instead, and is even more powerful in this state.
    • Kakine Teitoku creates three pairs of wings when he fights seriously, making him look like a high-ranking angel.
    • Aiwass has golden wings, usually hidden by his/her/its very long hair.
  • Rei Ayanami gets a set of six wings in End of Evangelion before proving Freud Was Right for all eternity. Suitably, her Wings become so large, they can cover the Entire Earth.
    • Unit 01 and Shinji gain wings of pure energy when exiting the Geofront explosively, giving it a Seraph-like appearance. Except it doesn't really help, as he finds outside the reason why he fought—the last person who he thought alive who he cared about/loved/????--turns out to have been EATEN.( Asuka.) Poor bastard never gets a break.
    • For all the Power tropes simultaneously exhibited, the first thing Eva-01 does is become more helpless than it was the entire series.
    • Unit 01 also sprouts six energy wings in the opening, even tho that never occurs in the show itself (until the movie, anyway).
      • Also, Adam sprouted quite a few wings...probably six too, before it initiated Second Impact, wiping out half of humanity and messing up the World's Ecosystem permanently.
    • A more straight example appears in Rebuild of Evangelion after Eva-01 merges with Rei and the remains of Zeruel (who had been given a very epic ass-kicking from Shinji) and grows wings of energy.
      • Note that this almost causes the Third Impact, if it hadn't been for Kaworu turning EVA-01 off. Apparently, in Evangelion, wings forewarn a large-scale disaster...
    • Fanfic writers really like this trope in general, such as in the fic True Angel by Innortal, where Shinji has power that manifests retractible wings, which happen to be somewhat contagious, thus a power spike ends with several hundred random people getting their own wings.
  • Rin Asougi in Mnemosyne sprouts a pinkish-white pair of wings after becoming the new Guardian of Yggdrasil. It may be interesting to mention that there are "normal" Winged Humanoids (appropriately called "angels") in the series but their wings are bloody red in color.
  • In Shugo Chara, Amu and Utau's most powerful forms - Amulet Diamond and Seraphic Charm - both have very large wings that enable them to fly in pretty formations. Utau's prove useful, as the feathers purify all the X-Eggs in the area.
  • Both Yayois in Koi Koi 7, who have wings in white and black, respectively. The pink-haired Yayoi made a Diving Save with hers, and the silver-haired Yayoi's wings were mostly limited to the OP to show that she meant trouble.
  • Wings are very prominent in Sekirei, where a kiss from an Ashikabi is required to "wing" a Sekirei, granting them greater power. More a case of "wings give you power", but still a good example.
  • Michel in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch starts out with four wings. After killing the Black Beauty Sisters and stealing their Life Energy, he's got six.
  • In Code Geass, the newest-generation Knightmare Frames, the Lancelot Albion and Guren SEITEN both sport glowing, angel-like wings made of green and red energy, respectively.
  • In Bleach, Byakuya Kuchiki manifests an aura in the shape of a pair of wings when he uses the "Final Scene, White Imperial Sword" attack of his Empathic Weapon. Toshiro Hitsugaya gets a pair of ice wings when he unleashes his bankai, and Uryu Ishida gains a single wing of light when he unleashes his ultimate power. And then there's of course Ulquiorra.
  • Kaoru from Zettai Karen Children gets angel wings when she faces off against one of Mio's clones combined with a bulldozer. The show's second opening theme is titled "MY WINGS", and plays up the wing symbolism further by showing the entire trio with wings.
  • In Shakugan no Shana, Shana sprouts flaming wings during her second fight against Margery Daw.
  • In the "Rescue Sasuke" arc of Naruto, Chouji uses a number of food pills during a battle to give him power boosts. The third one instantly converts all his body fat into chakra, which blaze from his back like glowing blue butterfly wings (Chouji means "butterfly"). He is later able to summon the chakra wings without taking the red pill.
    • Also Sasuke's Curse Seal Level Two, though instead of being angelic they're more of a cross between bat wings and webbed hands, and he can't fly, just glide and use them as shields.
  • Many MANY Shoujo related stuff. They may not always keep the wings, but the wings will always show up in their Magical Girl transformation or something. And of course, wings are decorated on their accessories, weapons, and battle outfits as well.
  • The protagonist of Clover deploys an Arm Cannon from his prosthetic arm at the end of the story. It has wings for no particular reason.
  • When Griffith becomes a Godhand at the end of Berserk, he takes on a rather sleek demonic form with batlike Cape Wings known as Femto.
  • When Minami Ikki discovers the wing road and later on the storm road, his motif is often depicted as a set of wings. He can also literally summon a pair of wings from his Air Treks whenever he enters the Wing road.
  • The Samurai Pizza Cats had a Mid-Season Upgrade that were robot bird booster packs, which granted them flight capability and some increase in power.
  • All spirits in the world of Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica have wings by default; the more they have, the more powerful they are. A great majority of them are two-winged, but one of the most powerful, Corti, has six.
  • Both Ameri and Yumina receive wings during the course of events in Tayutama. Yumina's wings are angelic and golden, so they're clearly good. Ameri's are dragonlike and black, so they are clearly bad.
  • Nodoka of Saki, when she's channeling the Nodocchi personality that allowed her to become the top online Mahjong player, will be depicted as sprouting wings from her back.
  • It's probably easier to name the Digimon who don't get wings (or at least some form of flight) as they reach their highest levels of power.
  • Rider in Fate/stay night when using her Noble Phantasm. The wings in this case are in the form of Pegasus, hence her class name.
  • Setsuna's pactio card in Negima Second Season gives her large, beautiful white wings with which to fly around slicing the monster of the week. Does not apply in the main series/manga, as she (as a half-demon) has the power to pull out from the beginning but largely does just fine without them.
  • The Crusniks in Trinity Blood sprout wings in their more powerful forms.
  • Maka demonstrates her new-found power (special 'Grigori' soul plus Death Scythe partner) by producing wings on Soul for them to fly with. Cute but unimpressive at first, Soul Resonance transforms them into large, angelic ones.
    • They were only cute and unimpressive because Maka demanded cute wings. She later grows out of that line of thinking.
      • It was also down to her and Soul disagreeing on the image of wings. Maka wanted 'cute angel', Soul could not imagine 'angelic' in relation to Maka, and the conflict makes them crash. The compromise resulted in the little wings they got when flying with Kim. As per usual, their mutual feeling and badassery allowed them to up the ante to fight Gopher. As with the black blood, the rather cool wings shown in that fight might well end up the norm.
    • Much earlier on, the result of consuming the souls collected by Nidhogg enables Crona and Ragnarok to grow wings. Kid appropriately calls them the "black dragon".
    • Hiro grows a pair of wings made of light while holding Excalibur.
    • Gopher's own grigori soul allows him to grow wings (though not physical ones) to fly, but unlike Maka's they are black which she puts down to magic, presumably Noah's influence. The fact he does not need a Weapon to use his 'soul wings' to fly may indicate Maka will be able to do the same at some point.
  • The Fly card in Cardcaptor Sakura initially causes wings to grow on Sakura's sealing staff, which she then can ride like a broom. But early in the Sakura Card arc, she changes the card to instead grow wings on her back, letting her fly alone and leaving the staff free to be used with the Sword card. Kero is completely astonished that she was capable of this.
  • Violinist of Hameln: Hamel sprouts wings while delivering the final blow to Kestra. It was the first time his angel blood showed. The wings disappear soon after.
  • In Pokémon during the Sinnoh Grand Festival where Zoey battles Nando. Mismagius used Psywave to give Leafeon an awesome set of glowing Hard Light wings.
  • Armitage III: The upgrade that Armitage receives at the end of the OVA plays with this, as the wings (and the subsequent mobility they provide) is half of the upgrade. Even Armitage finds them to be a little pretentious.

"It's a little too angelic for my taste."

  • Katekyo Hitman Reborn!: After Byakuran finishes finishes his little Exposition about Ghost, he shows off the flames Ghost absorbed as wings.
  • All Tennyo, save for Akira and Ryo, in Rakugo Tennyo Oyui, have a pair of glowing wings on the back of their magical girl outfits.
  • Both Arika and Ninaof "Mai-Otome" grow wings during their final battle.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The eponymous character gets a pair of wings in her Goddess form. Later, Homura inherit this power. At an unspecified time in the future, her wings turns into disturbing black tattered wings-thingie.
  • In Saint Beast, all angels have wings, but most can't use them. Among the characters that can, however, are Rey, who gets functional wings bestowed on him at the Day of Benediction ceremony as mediated sort of power-up, and Luca an Amnesiac God, whose wings appear under duress.
  • In GaoGaiGar, both J-Der and King J-Der have a utility called Plasma Wing. It basically gives the mecha 10 peacock-tailfeather-shaped wings, that allow them to travel much faster, and are fueled by raw determination. King J-Der only uses its Plasma Wings once, however, as part of its special attack, J-Phoenix, where it sets itself on fire and rams the enemy.
    • It can be argued that this also applies with the Genesic Machines. While both GaoGaiGar and Gao Figh Gar had wings in the form of Stealth Gao, Genesic GaoGaiGar also gets a set of wings, that are actually alive and sentient, in the form of Gadget Gao. More along the lines of Rule of Cool, as the wings aren't big enough to lift the mech, yet it still works.
  • In Hyper Speed GranDoll, Hikaru's final power-up, Gran Master, comes with wings.
  • Saint Seiya: The God Cloths all came with these.
  • The Thriller Bark arc of One Piece had Robin showcasing a power where she can use her Hana Hana abilities to makes wings. The downside is that she can only stay in the air for five seconds. The wings are made of body parts after all.
  • Parallel Trouble Adventure Dual. During the final battle, after the limiter is removed, Zinv gets Lighthawk Wings and runs out of bubble gum.
  • Prétear, Pretear's final form White Pretear has huge translucent butterfly wings.

Comic Books

  • Peter David's Supergirl series had the heroine become an "Earth Born Angel" with Flaming Wings. However, she already had the ability to fly.
  • In Elf Quest, the glider Tyldak, despite already having the ability to fly, wanted to ride the winds, so had Winnowill give him wings.
  • In Empowered, Emp's Die or Fly-instigated uber-power-boost is accompanied by the appearance of temporary Energy Wings.

Literature

  • Somewhat spoofed in this Dragonlance doujinshi comic.
  • In Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens when Crowley and Aziraphale take the side of the Antichrist in preventing The Apocalypse, they decide it's pointless hiding their wings anymore. In a subversion of the devil wings trope, Crowley also has feathered wings; after all, he may be Fallen, but he's still an Angel.
    • Actually, he did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards.
      • All demons have angel wings, the only difference being that demons typically keep theirs cleaner.
  • Kerry Ellison, in the Whateley Universe. Well, her codename is Seraphim, so it's not exactly a big surprise. Slightly subverted in that the first time she manifests her angelic wings she flaps around and can't fly straight until she gets used to them..
  • In James Swallow's Warhammer 40,000 novel Deus Encarmine and Deus Sanguinius, Arkio grows wings -- although in this case, it also makes him look like their primarch reborn, as Sanguinius had wings. Later, after the Chaos taint that had made Arkio like that was revealed, Rafen fights the demon behind it. For a moment, while wielding the power of the Spear of Telesto, he takes on the appearance of Sanguinius, complete with wings.
    • In Sabbat Martyr, the eponymous Saint's reincarnation is shown charging into battle with giant, glowing, ethereal green wings. They don't appear to be functional, but they form the shape of the Imperial Aquila, serving as a sort of battle standard. They get even bigger when she kills Enok Innokenti, too.
  • In Accel World, Haruyuki's Avatar Silver Crow is the first Flying Avatar in the Accel World. His "basic" moves -- punch and kick -- are actually special moves -- flying punch and flying kick.

Live-Action TV

  • The third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (and the first movie) has the Falconzord add wings to one of the Megazords, thus forming either the Ninja Megafalconzord or Shogun Megafalconzord.
  • Kamen Riders with multiple forms tend to get wings as part of their Mid-Season Upgrade or later Super Mode:
    • Kamen Rider Den-O's Wing form. While the wings are only on display for a second during the transformation, the form is indeed more powerful than Ryotaro's four default forms. This trope really comes into play when Sieg attaches to Climax Form, granting Ryotaro an actual pair of wings based on his mask.

 Momotaros: (reaching around behind him and feeling the wings) What's this fluttery thing? Gah! Chicken-Wing Bastard, is that you?!

  • The final episode of Garo has the titular character growing wings on his armour to fight Meisha. (In a slight subversion, he then engages in a fight with an even more powerful foe after being Brought Down to Normal and holds his own perfectly well.)
  • Super Rescue Max in Tomica Hero Rescue Force. It's basically the same as Rescue Max, except now it has wings built into it. It's surprisingly fast and agile.

Tabletop Games

  • In Dungeons & Dragons, Favored Souls grow a pair of wings at higher levels, as do Dragon Disciples
    • Although bizarrely natural half-dragons do not get wings unless they are size category large or bigger.
      • But in 4th ed dragonborn can at level 11.
    • The Greater Visage Of The Deity spell in 3rd Edition allowed you to take the half-celestial/fiend template, which would give wingless characters wings.
  • Many Daemon Princes and Living Saints in Warhammer 40,000 have wings.
  • The Legend Game System has this as a feat starting at level 9.

Video Games

  • In Star Ocean: Till the End of Time when Fayt manifests his power of Destruction and blows up a Vendeeni battleship, he temporarily grows white, glowing wings for no readily apparent reason. He also has them when he uses his "Ethereal Blast" attack.
  • In Xenogears, the Red Gear piloted by Id has wings of green light, with yellow feathery projections. They become more brilliant as the engine coil warms up.
    • The Omnigears, augmented versions of the heroes' typical Gears, all have wings.
    • And of course, the Xenogears itself, which is just the evolved form of Id's Red Gear.
    • The explanation is that the wings are really just the superheated exhaust coming from the gear.
  • Final Fantasy likes this trope. There's a reason it's the Trope Namer for One-Winged Angel.
    • Kefka grows six wings for his final battle: two black, leathery bat/demon wings, two darkly feathered wings that seem like a mix of demonic and angelic wings, and two white, feathery angel wings.
      • That's just his Dissidia model. In FFVI, he had 4 golden wings.
    • Sephiroth: Six wings. He may have one extra, but he still counts.
      • In other Compilation entries, Sephiroth has 1 black wing on his right, Genesis has a bigger black wing on his left, & Angeal has 2 white wings on his right.
    • Rinoa's "Angel Wing" Limit Break in Final Fantasy VIII, which provides her with exactly what it says and a heightened magical power. It should also be noted that Rinoa is a Sorceress, and of the three besides Rinoa seen in the game, two of them also have wings, and the third one has two strips of fabric extending from her back that kinda look like wings.
    • Two decorative wings on Eiko's back grow to more realistic proportions during her Limit Break.
    • Seymour in Final Fantasy X sprouts wings as he grows in power during the course of the game. Jecht sprouts wings in the second part of the final battle.
    • In Final Fantasy XII, when Vayne goes One-Winged Angel in the final battle, he turns into a mechanical version of the iconic summon Bahamut, complete with giant steel wings.
    • Cid Raines sprouts wings when he becomes a Cie'th Corpse in Final Fantasy XIII.
  • Angels in Tales of Symphonia. Also renegade angels. And Colette, when she was turning into an angel. And Lloyd near the end, because he's just that much of a messiah.
  • Some Pokémon gain wings and the Flying type upon reaching their last evolution. Notably Charizard, Dragonite and Salamence.
    • Also many Bug types—Beautifly, Butterfree, Mothim, Masquerain, ect...unfortunately, aside from maybe Masquerain, none of these are particularly powerful like the examples mentioned above. Generation five did give us Larvesta, a bug who you could equate with power causing wing growth but it is not a flying type. It does learn many flying moves after evolution though.
    • Trapinch gains wings and the Flying type Levitation ability, because it also gains the Dragon type when it evolves into Vibrava. This is different because Vibrava is not the final form.
    • Similarly, Deino from Black and White gains a pair of wings upon evolving into a Zweilous. However, a Zweilous can't use its wings for flying until it becomes a Hydreigon where it has six wings and levitate as its ability.
  • Achaea characters have the option of transforming into a dragon on reaching level 99. Wings, talons and really bad breath included.
  • Mario in Super Mario 64 has the Wing cap, which has little wings on it. The power part comes at the end after beating the last boss. When Bowser is defeated he drops the last Power Star, and upon picking it the Wing cap appears automatically on Mario.
  • Yoshi's final smash in Super Smash Bros. Brawl mostly revolves around him growing wings and just going nuts on the other characters. This is based off a pair of power ups from Super Mario World, one of which is called "Yoshi's Wings".
  • In Valkyrie Profile, the animation for Valkyrie's super attack includes luminescent wings sprouting from her back.
    • Continued in Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria for all three valkyries. Alicia starts doing this when her super attack upgrades. Finally, there's the one true valkyrie, who sprouts SIX wings in her version of Nibelung Valesti. One set for each vakyrie.
  • Princess Sprites, Ran's powered-up older self in Twinkle Star Sprites, has pixie wings. Possibly justified, since Ran's mother Memory also has wings.
  • The Bad Ending of Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories has Adell grow a pair of huge black wings after he's possessed by Overlord Xenon.
  • Ernst in Ys: The Ark of Napishtim grows black feathery wings. Considering his goal was to gain the power of the Winged Gods, this should hardly be surprising. Also from the same game Adol Cristin temporarily sprouts white feathered wings.
    • Where does Adol himself sprout wings? Don't remember that.
  • A minor example in Final Fantasy XI, Valaineral R Davilles has a unique AoE Weapon Skill where he temporarily grows wings of light before slamming the ground and making pillars of light come out of the ground.
  • World of Warcraft has a Paladin ability, Avenging Wrath, that temporarily boosts all damage and causes the user to sprout a halo and golden wings of light.
    • With the new expansion it now boosts damage and healing.
    • And let's not forget some of the armor sets that boast wings of varying levels of solidity as part of their shoulder pieces. Priests in particular seem to get this effect, although Warlocks have the best by far in a set that randomly and temporarily sprouts an enormous set of demonic bat wings.
      • Wildheart Spaulders, the classic dungeon 1 set of druid shoulders, had birds perched on them, their wings stretching to the sky. Big birds.
    • Warlocks who specialize in Demonology have a "Demon Form" they can shift into for a short time. In this form, they appear as a black goat-hooved demon ... with wings.
    • As of the Cataclysm expansion, priests also have a spell that gives them wings and a temporary bonus to spells in correspondence to the magic they specialize in - "Archangel" with bright wings and a healing bonus for smiting priests, and "Dark Archangel" with black wings and a damage bonus for shadow priests.
    • Also, Warcraft III has Illidan gain wings in his demon form after consuming the skull of Gul'dan. After a second power boost from Kil'jaeden, he gains permanent wings in his base form.
    • Kil'jaeden himself gained wings after being empowered by Sargeras.
  • Guild Wars Paragons have an ability that has them momentarily grow wings of light before setting their next target on fire.
  • Inverted in Atelier Iris, where Lita occasionally sprouts wings, but only when in a greatly weakened state.
  • Reapers in The World Ends With You have black skeletal-like wings, although Reapers can hide their wings to blend in with other people (their Impossibly Cool Clothes don't give them away... this is Shibuya, after all).
  • Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow's Soma Cruz, while utilizing the soul of a flying humanoid, will sprout huge wings, twice his own size. The extent of this newfound wingspan is making him smarter and luckier.
  • Touhou has several straight examples and variations:
    • Fujiwara no Mokou has phoenix wings symbolizing her Immortality.
    • Yuyuko Saigyouji has a giant fan.
    • Byakuren Hijiri has what seems to be a lotus blossom. Byakuren's name can mean "White Lotus Saint".
    • Toyosatomimi no Miko grows butterfly wings. As a Taoist, it's only appropriate that she invoke Schrödinger's Butterfly.
    • Before any of them was the PC-98 boss Shinki, who grew six glowing white wings in battle that turned into more bat-like purple wings midway. Shinki is the god and creator of a world of demons.
    • When Marisa Kirisame and Yuuka Kazami appeared in the Seihou series (a sort of sister series to Touhou), they both had a pair of wings. Yuuka's were green, befitting her power over flowers, while Marisa had angel wings. Fanon has generally decided that this trope applies to both of them when they're going all out—which may be supported by the games themselves: Yuuka only has wings when she's performing an attack, while Marisa in Seihou is the first boss of the Extra stage.
    • We can't forget Mima, can't we? In The Story of Eastern Wonderland, Mima gets a pair of blue and purple bat-like wings when she fights you. If you beat that form without continuing she changes her appearance, and they are replaced with six feathered purple wings. In further games, Mima does not have wings; but she is generally displayed as having them in fanworks, generally when fighting. Touhou Soccer takes it to humongous levels.
      • She also sports a pair of black bat-like wings in her bombing image in Mystic Square.
  • When using Ancardia for an Ex Skill, Maria sprouts an impressive pair of orange wings similar to Marietta's. Meria could probably do the same thing if she wanted to, but...well, let's just say she's the Revenge Before Reason type.
    • Melissa also subverts this trend: When using her rage bullet, she literally uses her wings to materialize all the massive shrapnel and energy beams, and appears without them for as long as the attack is active.
  • Nearly everyone in Baten Kaitos is a Winged Humanoid who can make said wings appear or disappear at will. They summon these wings in battle, mostly just because it looks awesome. The wings disappear at the end when The Magic Goes Away.
  • Invoked in Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, but as a Zig-Zagging Trope. Kharg gains the ability to learn magic early in the game, but doesn't know why; when it's revealed later in the game that his magic is a result of his Half-Deimos lineage, the shock causes him to grow a pair of wings, which he rips from his back in disgust, so he's both a justified case and an avertion. His brother Darc is an inversion; he begins the game with wings and spellcasting abilities, but shortly after his wings are torn off, he finds a human sword and decides to incorporate human martial arts into his fighting style.
  • P-Wings in Super Mario Bros 3. Or is that Wings Give You Power (of Flight)?
  • Pit in Kid Icarus starts out with rudimentary wings, by the time he acquires all the MacGuffins, he has fully functional wings.
  • Lumine's second form in Mega Man X 8 grows wings.
    • Don't forget Copy X's in Mega Man Zero, from which the aforementioned Lumine is based on.
    • Also Master Albert in Mega Man ZX.
  • Super Robot Wars 64 has the Simurgh Splendid, created from the combination of the Simurgh and the Elblus.
  • In Street Fighter III : Third Strike, Gill has a screen-filling super (called "Ascencion" or "Seraphic Wing" depending on who you listen to) during which he briefly is shown with three pairs of wings. Not surprisingly, this is the most universally loathed super in the game.
  • Really powerful machines in Siter Skain's The Tale of Alltynex get energy wings when using their full powers. This includes the player's ship at one point.
    • These games are also largely responsible for the same style of wings appearing all over the place in Fraxy, after Eboshidori made several Siter Skain-inspired bosses.
  • Angels in Diablo have wings made of energy tentacles.
  • In Champions Online, one of the Celestial powers (I want to say Ascension) is a short-duration buff that, amongst other things, gives the player wings of glowing energy and the ability to fly briefly.
  • A sufficiently powerful character in Fable III will gain a luminous, transparent pair of wings, which show up when an attack is charging.
  • In Legend of Dragoon, those who gain the power of a dragon and become a Dragoon grow wings when they transform. Though these can't be used to fly except in cutscenes.
  • Kahu in Jade Cocoon 2 gets a pair of wings when Elrihm the Forest God declares him The Chosen One and sends him to do battle with Levant and Lilith.
  • Galaxy Angel the emblem frames gain wings when the Halo system (based on the pilot's emotional state) reaches 100%. This gives them a huge boost of power.
  • Peach's mega strike in Super Mario Strikers Charged involves her leaping into the air, growing a set of energy wings and then kicking the ball
  • In Dantes Inferno, Dante can activate an ability called "Holy armour", which gives him invincibility and health regeneration over thirty seconds, giving him two wing-shaped beam things on his shoulder blades.
    • They don't do anything, really, but some theories think that either the wings themselves are what give Dante his protection from Hellspawn, or they act as vents to prevent Dante from blowing up from the sheer Holy power.

Web Comics

Web Original

Western Animation

  • Optimus Prime frequently gets wings later in a series, though more mechanical than feathery. It's sometimes accomplished by combining with another Autobot, though.
    • Optimus Primal also got wings after carrying Optimus Prime's spark for a few hours. He had to transform into a plane to use the wings, but still... The new modifications remained even after he gave the spark back to Prime.
    • Cheetor in his Transmetal body could count. His flight mode wings had jets on the ends of them.
    • On one occasion, Megatron got wings as part of a power up. They were somewhat overshadowed by him getting the ability to turn into a dragon at the time, though.
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