Azazel in popular culture

Azazel, a demon from Jewish mythology, has been developed into characters in popular culture.^[1][2][3]

Books

• Robertson Davies introduces Azazel and Samahazai as rebel angels in the first book of his Cornish Trilogy, The Rebel Angels. They are said to have "betrayed the secrets of Heaven to King Solomon", so that "God threw them out of Heaven", and on earth "they taught tongues, and healing and laws and hygiene".
• Azazel is the principle character in a series of short stories written by Isaac Asimov.
• Azazel is a leader of the fallen angels in the light novel series High School DxD. He becomes a teacher and club advisor at their school.
• Azazello is a character in Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita.^[4]
• In the fifth book of The Mortal Instruments, Azazel is a greater demon raised by warlock Magnus Bane to help in a search for shadowhunter Jace Lightwood.
• Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics, published by DC Comics, features Azazel as a character.
• The X-Men comic books features a mutant based on the legendary demon, created by writer Chuck Austen.

Movies

• In the film Fallen with Denzel Washington, as a body-switching demon.

Games

• In The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Azazel is a playable character. He begins the game with demonic powers and has the appearance of a demon, with black skin and wings.
• In 2011 action video game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, Azazel is one of the strongest Grigori who controls the human evolutions also the angelic and mortal technologies. Azazel is the right-man of the fallen angel Semyaza. In the near-end game, Azazel transforms into a Locust-like monster.
• Azazel is a demon in many of the Shin Megami Tensei series of video games, whose lore describes it as a Grigori in Judaism and a jinn in Islam.
• In Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Azazel is the Sphere Corporation's Chief of Security and helps release the Executioneers by orders from Luther Lansfield. His name was changed to Azazer in the English version.
• Azazel is the name of the final boss in Namco's Tekken 6. He is a huge, demonic, crystalline, dragon-like creature, and he is fought inside an ancient, torch-lit temple in the Middle East.
• Azazel appears in the Warhammer Fantasy world as a champion of the chaos god Slaanesh.

Television

• In the CW TV series Supernatural, a demon named Azazel is the main antagonist in seasons one and two, whom the main characters begin hunting to seek revenge for the death of their mother. However, the name is not mentioned until season three, after his death, and prior to this he was usually called the Yellow-Eyed Demon.
• In the anime Rage of Bahamut: Genesis, Azazel is an antagonistic fallen angel and the brother of Lucifer, both of whom side with the demons against the gods.
• In the mini-series Fallen, Azazel appears in the second part. He is released after 5000 years of imprisonment and starts his search for Aaron.
• In the anime High School DxD Azazel is the governor of the fallen angels.

Villains named Azazel

References

1. Music popular culture identities - Page 143 Richard Young - 2002 "The band Azazel is named after a traditional Jewish demon (although there are non- Israeli bands called Azazel as well). Bishop Of Hexen's CD Archives of an Enchanted Philosophy (Hammerheart, 1996) draws on biblical stories of witches."
2. Supernatural Youth: The Rise of the Teen Hero in Literature and ... - Page 145 Jes Battis - 2011 " Azazeal is based on Azazel, the fallen angel credited with inventing warfare and with teaching men to create weapons from the Book of Enoch;30 this figure, who is ..."
3. Overkill: Sex and Violence in Contemporary Russian Popular Culture - Page 234 Eliot Borenstein - 2008 "When Akunin introduces his readers to Erast Petrovich Fandorin in Azazel' (The Winter Queen), the young hero is an orphan, and Fandorin's rootlessness is ..."
4. Milne, Lesley (1990). Mikhail Bulgakov: A Critical Biography. Cambridge University Press. p. 246. ISBN 9780521227285.