Angels or Demons?

[dewarcomics]

Me personally, I feel like Angels and Demons are overused and would try to avoid them If I made something supernatural in a fantasy story (romance stories or otherwise). I would try to either research on something that most people haven't even heard of in the mainstream or try to come up with something unique that is my own. But that's what I would do.

Not to say I wouldn't use common fantasy creature, but if I do I would use them in a way that I haven't seen too often or at all.

[Dysis]

What do I think about it: Yes, you're right. Demons are portrayed more in novels, like by a long, long, shot.
What spiritual entity was featured in my case: Neither, for now. But there are demons in my story, just that it eats you.
Do I think one spiritual entity is more common? Why?: Demons, because of the following reasons:

If it's romance: It's easier to depict them as vile and more prone to carnal desires. I mean, I can only imagine a romance with an angel to be this cute, fluffy, funny thing which would require a lot of effort in the writer's part to make it as appealing as those lustful demonic interactions.

If it's an action/adventure: Angels will never harm you, so no danger of interaction, no thrill. Unless, of course, you are plotting to destroy the world.

Do you prefer going to hell or heaven?: Ahahahaha

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Angels are cute, pure, fluffy, and harmlesss? Boring compared to "Bad boy" demons? Nope.
Remember there's angel of death (Azrael)? Or even angels of destruction in charge of torturing people in hell (Abaddon)? Probably there are more depending on which beliefs you based your angel from.

Also about real biblical angels: they're huge, has many wings, genderless, has many eyes; closer to Eldritch abomination than a sweet eye candy. Sign me in for romance with angels that look like those.

I once made a story about angels, but angels are the asshole.

[TheGentleArtist]

Granted, by hierarchy, those are higher up and look less human. The ones lower ranked look more human; example: the ones that met up with Abraham and Lot in Genesis.

[Beltaine]

-So what do you think about it?:
yeh, more demons defiantly..i think cause maybe it gives off a 'bad boy/girl' type? idk but i get why people like it
-What spiritual entity was featured in your case? Demon or Angel?:
demons and angels! my comic is based around both ^^ so you don't get too much of either
-Do you think one spiritual entity is more common than the other one for some reason? Why?:
like i said up top for the first one, people just seem to prefer a mysterious/bad boy/girl type and like to read that sort of thing
-What spiritual entity do you prefer?:
angels ^^ but their halos are difficult to remember
-Do you prefer going to hell or heaven?:
i don't mind either, but i don't believe in either so-

[DeformedSunflower]

I agree with everyone here. Demons are easier to write because you can do all kinds of lustful stuffs with them, while angels are considered pure and untainted, only fallen angels indulge in carnal desires (and writing about lustful angels might also scandalise the religion).

I'm definitely not the biggest fan of stories with angels and demons, mainly because they all feel the same. If the author is able to twist the usage of the entities in a new, interesting way, though, I might give it a try.

[Jenny-Toons]

Also about real biblical angels: they're huge, has many wings, genderless, has many eyes; closer to Eldritch abomination than a sweet eye candy. Sign me in for romance with angels that look like those.

This right here -- I throw away that old "angels are pure and untainted, demons are the only ones give into lust". It's nice foundation, but judging by most of the responses, that's all people know about angels/demons and see.

I get creative with it. I want both.

I want angels that are assholes, that don't mind bending rules in their favor. Hell, if you think about the true lore, a lot of angels wouldn't have fluffy romances, if they'd want a romance at all. They'd look down on humans or at the very least would be too omnipotent to favor one human over the rest. So in my head, I'm like "my character has to be pretty damn special to get one of these falling for them".

And again -- I want my angels to be eldritch horrors. A lot of the protrayals in media seem to be based on Greek representations of angels. But if you go to other sources, like Ezekiel?

They look like elder gods.

That would be so much more cooler, and more romantic, to have a great being who is possibly beyond human comprehension fall in love with a human. That's cooler.

Same with demons. I want demons that are eldritch horrors but would set the world on fire for their lover. I've been picking that more for two of my stories: My Demon Valentine and With Butterflies in Her Hair (which is only on Webtoons now). They're demons that have drove many a men insane and ripped their souls away (that's more in WBIHH than in MDV), but they've melted under the love of a human.

I dunno -- I feel it you only stick to the traditional depiction in media, it gets kinda boring. So I say go past that and dive into the other lore. Maybe angels can be summoned in your world. Maybe they help with conditions that could take your sanity away. Maybe demons are only angels of a different mission.

There's a reason we have the TV Trope entries "Our Angels/Demons are Different". People dove into the lore, took some parts, and made something new.

[byelacey]

angels and demons can be incredibly compelling if re-told in interesting ways. just look at [un]divine. body horror abounds and no one's a hero, especially not the angels.

[domisotto]

Actually, both. Or I plan to as one of my next books. Because, why not both?

[Penni]

I'm currently working on a fluffier romance with angels and demons in them but I have some ideas so a truer (much scarier version) of them. I totally agree that would be awesome to see. I've been doing a bit of research on angels and there is really so much more involved with them than I initially thought (or was taught in church).

It's an interesting rabbit hole to go down and since a lot of it isn't super clear cut, there's so much more room to work with the concept.

[Dysis]

Interesting perspective!

[HGohwell]

I used to write angels and demons a lot in my younger days. Had some interesting conversations about people who "enjoyed it even though I'm not religious and don't believe in angels" which, you know had me going "you don't have to believe in unicorns to read about them". It's something I'd love to go back and rework someday actually, there were some concepts I really loved.

Like the angels being the old school eldritch horror type angels, just looking human in a slightly uncanny way so they can move among humans and looking upon their true forms has a habit of sending people insane and/or death but if you survive you get powers that will also send you insane and/or dead. There were also a lot of the typical overdone tropes in there but that's what rewrites are for.

I do feel like they're a bit overused, especially in the YA supernatural romance genre, but what else is new? Pretty much everything is, you know, but there's a lot that's not been done to death about them and interesting angles to be done with angels and demons.

Angel Sanctuary (the manga not the anime that cut out everything regarding angels) was a pretty interesting one, totally messed up and beautifully drawn, that pretty much cut humans out of the story entirely after the first arc. It had some really interesting ideas under all the mess, Heaven as a really messy bureaucracy with people grabbing power GOT style all over the place, God hasn't been around for a long while so they're doing their own thing, more powerful angels stopping aging younger so having some really powerful brats with the emotional maturity to match and the growing in popularity trope Lucifer was just designated bad guy but just decided to really role with it in the end. And also demons, compared to fallen angels, being something like a separate race similar to humans. Some really interesting ideas explored in that one for how messed up it was.

[NickRowler]

If by demon you mean “devil demon”, I think I prefer angels. I would rather have an evil angel then a demon, imo. But this could be in part that I used to be obsessed with angels and humaniods with wings.

I tend to prefer Japanese demons over western devil demons. I find devils and satan stuff really lame and boring.

My major criticism of angels tho is I hate that most of them are pale with blonde hair and blue eyes. I just wish people would mix it up a bit.

[bakasama25]

You should look into how Islam depicts angels. They're still weird and alien but they don't have free will.

Think most older branches of Christianity, like Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodoxy, Assyrian and Coptic churches still recognize them as angels.

[MeltingCORE]

I don't have demons in my story but two things. 1) I do visually prefer demon characters because I just enjoy how they look and the aesthetic. 2) My novel series does have a race of alien beings who I gave demonic traits and humans mistake them for demons. But they're inter-dimensional aliens who live on an industrial, hell-like world. I really love fire and lava. And gritty industrialization and cyberpunk. (You can see my girl Stellar in my avi!)

[joannekwan]

I think people just like exploring that 'good vs evil' dynamic and the 'oh they're not so bad, they're just like us' particularly when it comes to demons. And being demons, it allows the creator to push the envelope of propriety, especially in romance.

I featured demons in my series. Mainly because they were popular at the time I started and I wanted to put my own spin on them. My canon lore stated they look more human and animalistic because as they are born from the sins of humans, they take on familiar forms.

The angels however, since they are beyond human, are more eldritch horror looking. I don't feature them as much though, they're just silly gag and plot devices.

Both are fun to design though within the context I created for myself. But I never dive too deep into the theological side of things in the comic since it's just a simple slice-of-life, and it left some readers wanting. For now I'm all demon and angeled out so I won't be touching those for a long while and I think the market is kind of oversaturated with them anyway.

[DiegoPalacios]

Also, there is the fact that on the Christian portrayal, demons and angels are basically the same in a way, but different in another. Demons are fallen angels, so, angels and demons are two faces of the same coin.

[Penni]

Yes! There are so many interpretations and rankings among the angels and demons. It's so fascinating. This one might be my favorite though.

[Juas]

Angels OR Demons?
Why not both?
I wrote a book called "Milo And His Lovers" in which the guy, Milo, asked an Efreet for some wishes in exchange of his soul, and one of them was to have two magical girlfriends that love him forever, one an angel and the other a succubus. It was incredibly fun to write, combining the three characters made a pretty good adventure story in a medieval fantasy world with an ending that got me to tears (I got too fond of the characters)... Actually I would love to make it a webcomic but the book has a lot of really explicit sex scenes between them so I am not sure if I want to draw all that lol

[SleepingPoppy]

I think angels are more tightly associated with religion and Christianity, while demons have a broader association with the supernatural. It makes demons more accessible, I think? So they turn up in more stuff.

My comic skipped demons and features hell hounds, instead, as man/hound shifting creatures that retrieve souls to hell. But they still kind of fill the same slot. And then of course an angel. I'm not particularly into the religious side myself, but I do like some of the mythos surrounding the different kinds of angels, what they do, what they look like (ie giant flame wheel of eyeballs), and that helped the divine half of the story.

At the end of the day, I was less into angels than the idea of pretty boys with wings, though, so nobody judge me! XD