Robotic Angel
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Robots who are angels and/or angels who are robots. Can include angels who are Cyborgs as well. Either way, it's very much a case of the Rule of Cool in play.
The origins of a Robotic Angel can vary:
On the one hand, while Heaven is not often seen as a high-tech setting, sometimes it can surprise you -- and when it does, this will likely be one of the surprises: the inorganic angel.[1] These are nearly always Badass Automatons of the highest order, and while all but guaranteed to be part of the Armies of Heaven, they can also serve in a host of other roles.
Alternatively, the Robotic Angel might be a mortal creation, built either for honest or deceptive reasons. In this case it is likely not be a truly divine being at all, but simply takes the form of one. However, if such a creation is sophisticated enough to have free will and a moral sense, it may find upon the end of its existence that it qualifies for the afterlife, and may even be elevated to true angelic status.
Despite the "Robotic" part of the trope name, these angels don't need to be constructed from gears and power packs - they just need to be constructed.
One of the more extreme variations of Our Angels Are Different. May of necessity be a Religious Robot.
Anime and Manga
- Steel Angel Kurumi has battle gynoids called "steel angels", among them the main character. Although the story is set in an alternate 1920s Tokyo, the gynoids were created in a distant future, and possessed mysterious power sources called "angel hearts" which seemed to be mystical in origin. The title character possessed a Mark II Angel Heart, the full use of which was said to be potentially apocalyptic, but which ultimately resulted in Kurumi transforming into a true robot-angel hybrid being.
- Angeloids in Heaven's Lost Property.
- The sole inhabitant of the Imaginary Number District in A Certain Magical Index is an artificial angel, definitely of the Holy Hand Grenade sort.
- Although the definition of "angel" in this context is a little different from the usual, the Evangelion units of Neon Genesis Evangelion definitely count.
Fan Works
- Fusion Gundam in Final Stand of Death are this thanks to being angels fused with Mechanical Lifeforms and humanoid wolves.
- In episode 5, it's discovered in their original form, i.e. minus their armor, they also process Glowing Mechanical Eyes, while the other ghosts of the fallen have normal eyes. This was likely to tell apart what kind of ghosts they were.
- Episode 10 explains the process.
Film
- Seraph from The Matrix series was created by the Oracle to serve as a "guardian angel".
Live-Action TV
- The Messengers on the 2004 Battlestar Galactica.
- Red Dwarf makes mention of "Silicon Heaven", the afterlife for any device with even the slightest amount of computing power to it. Assuming it actually exists (there is some contention on the issue), it is no doubt amply supplied with Robotic Angels.
Tabletop Games
- Penny Arcade: The Game – Gamers vs. Evil, the Penny Arcade card game published in 2011 by Cryptozoic Entertainment, includes a card for the Robot Cowboy Angel cited below.
- The role-playing game Starfighter has Barachius angels, which are a mix of angels and cyborgs.
- In In Nomine Kyriotates serving Jean, the archangel of Lightning (and technology), can possess or inhabit any kind of "made" object -- including robots. Angelic servants of the Archangel David can possess and animate stone statues, which would probably qualify under the broad definition of "robotic" we use above -- especially if they had wings.
Video Games
- A common theme in the Shin Megami Tensei series, especially in depictions of Metatron, who is often depicted as humanoid robot. Other high ranking angels also have partial or completely robot motifs on occasion.
Web Comics
- Invoked for laughs in the December 8, 2004 Penny Arcade which postulated an In Name Only Metroid movie that was about "a rowdy team of baseball players who discover the true meaning of Christmas from a robot cowboy angel".
Web Original
- Robot angels are a popular subject for fantasy and SF artists, so much so that a Google Images search will turn up dozens.
- ↑ Yes, yes, we know. Being purely spiritual beings, all angels are technically inorganic, at least until they take on the form of a corporeal creature. And maybe not even then.