Ophanim, or the Charioteers, are recurring antagonists in Hazbin Hotel: Journey to the Light.
They are a choir of angels that take the intimidating form of a star-like, gargantuan spinning wheel orbited by crystals and laden in dozens upon dozens of eyes. Many of the Ophanim are tasked with defending the Morningstar family, and actively defend all corners of Heaven and God's Throne, working directly alongside Metatron to ensure the safety of all angel and mankind. They are among the most feared and powerful of angels, ready to obliterate anything that threatens Heaven's order.
Biography[]
Events of Hazbin Hotel: Journey to the Light[]
Chapter 5[]
In "Enter Through the Narrow Gate", an Ophanim is greeted by Serenity as she flitters through Halo City.
In "Let There Be Lux", an Ophanim angel who guards Roo's dimension prevents Charlie and Vaggie from accessing the source of Roo's power and does battle with the two of them, determined to not let Roo be freed by any means. Roo claims to Charlie and Vaggie that the Ophanim is her "warden", taking advantage of their lack of knowledge on the angels. Although the Ophanim utterly dominates the fight, Charlie refuses to give up due to the promise she made to Roo. Still, the Ophanim easily defeats the two and traps Charlie in a magical glyph that immobilizes her when it knocks the princess out of the air, pinning her angelic wings to the ground. While the Ophanim was hovering over Charlie and Vaggie, one of its dozens of eyes spots Roo ripping apart the light suppressing her power.
By the time the Ophanim angel realizes that Roo had broken the light, it is too late, and Roo is able to restore her power to nearly its full capacity. Roo summons hundreds of her roots to wrap around the Ophanim and begins breaking its rings apart. The Ophanim, in a deafening angel tongue, tells Charlie and Vaggie that they have made a grave mistake (only Vaggie understands its warning due to being a fallen saint, while Charlie covers her ears in pain). Roo then sadistically and graphically kills the angel by plunging her spiked roots into his main eyeball, tearing its eye out and siphoning its power and life for her own. The Ophanim then faded into nothing after being erased.
In "Metatron, The Voice of God", two smaller Ophanim angels accompany Metatron in his meeting with Azrael. The head archangel orders Metatron to find the Seraphim Sisters Sera and Serenity before the upcoming Extermination. Following the meeting, Metatron opens a portal to Hell and sends a legion Ophanim angels down to Hell to retrieve the sisters.
In "What's Up, Heaven?", the legions of Ophanim sent down to Hell scatter across the seven rings in search for Sera and Serenity. During this three Ophanim pick up on the presence of angels, which brings them to the Hazbin Hotel, where they see Charlie's Angels through the window. Metatron, who can see through the eyes of the Ophanim, is alarmed by this and orders the Ophanim to take the angelic children back to Heaven. Following orders, the three Ophanim explosively enter the hotel, blowing a massive hole through the front doors before they scour around, looking for the children as the hotel's occupants flee in terror. One by one, the Ophanim capture the children by shooting tractor beam-like light from their eyes and using them to catch the children, who are understandably terrified to see them. Charlie, Vaggie, Niffty, Husk and Angel Dust fiercely attempt to defend Manco from an Ophanim angel only for it to no-sell all of their attacks and capture Manco in a tractor beam as well. The three Ophanim angels take off with the children and fly towards Heaven, but an enraged Charlie unfolds her wings and pursues them. Despite Charlie's efforts, the Ophanim angels, determined the protect the children from what they believe to be their kidnappers, use holy fire to almost burn Charlie's wings off, sending the princess violently plummeting to the grounds of Hell, where she has to helplessly watch the angels take the children back to Heaven as they cry for help. The Ophanim dropped the children in front of Heaven's gate so that Azrael could greet them with a self-glorifying musical number.
In "Extermination Day: Part 1", a duo of Ophanim entered Azrael and Lute's kitchen accompanied by Michael. The duo observed the conversation between the three individuals. Michael greeted their arrival with laughter and informed Azrael and Lute that the Ophanim, apparently named Gideon and Rufus, were present for his protection. Once Azrael and Lute departed, the Ophanim departed Heaven alongside Michael.
Personality[]
- "He's always so kind and always gives me the best of wisdom! Listening to him talk is one of the most mesmerizing things in the world! He speaks about the infinite number of worlds out in the Universe, and the people he's seen, and the angels he's interacted with, and it's just... It's just... Breathtaking!"
- — Serenity about the head Ophanim.
Described by angels as "all-business", the Ophanim are mute sentinels, defending their sacred home, its denizens, and their superiors with might and valor. They possess unwavering loyalty to the Morningstar family and Metatron, following their orders with no questions asked, and is confrontational, threatening, and curt while dealing with potential threats or outsiders.
According to Asherah, the Ophanim are very no-nonsense, and have zero sense of humor. Despite this, they are rarely capable of having "fun", as shown when Asherah's two Ophanim were bouncing and vibing to music playing during Gabriel's return.
Despite their rather frightening appearance and intimidating nature, Ophanim is implied to very amiable towards Heaven's denizens, especially the higher-ups. Seraphiel claims that the head Ophanim is "fun at parties". Assuming this wasn't simply a joke or quip on Seraphiel's part, it could imply that Ophanim display a more casual attitude towards Heaven's higher-ups. Serenity also deeply admires the head Ophanim and considers them to be an uncle to her and the "coolest person around", as well as claiming that they are very wise and tells her stories about his travels.
Appearance[]
The Ophanim manifest as a series of concentric spinning rings, encircled by triangular spikes adorned with azure dots beneath each one. These dots, in fact, comprise numerous eyes. At the heart of these rings rests the colossal singular eye of the Ophanim. It features cerulean "eyelids," a white sclera, and a brilliant blue pupil that gleams as intensely as its sacred flames.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Angelic Power: As the protectors of God's Throne, even one Ophanim is a nigh-unstoppable destroyer strongly attuned to extraordinary, divine angelic power. Matching its intimidating appearance, Ophanim are capable of raining light and destruction on all who threaten Heaven. Even the most powerful of demons are helpless against even a single Ophanim; while preventing Charlie from helping Roo reach her full power, one Ophanim angel nonchalantly defeated the Princess of Hell and Vaggie, and completely dominated its fight with them, receiving no damage during the encounter until a nearly full-powered Roo stepped in.
- Aura: Ophanim have an invisible aura that protects them from virtually any form of non-divine attacks. An Ophanim's aura extinguished Charlie's torrents and blasts of fire before she could even land a hit on it.
- Energy Projection: Ophanim can fire a beam of light from its pupil that causes a massive explosion on contact. When its beam hit an organic target, it levitates and evaporates them on contact.
- Flight: Ophanim can travel wherever it wants, always floating and hovering in the air eve without the use of wings.
- Immobilization: Ophanim is capable of rendering other entities immobile by producing magical glyphs from underneath them.
- Multiple Eyes: Ophanim have hundreds of eyes across the span of their rings. These eyes allow them to see in 360-degree vision.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Due to its divine nature, Ophanim are completely invulnerable to anything outside of divine magic, as not even Charlie was capable of even phasing it. However, entities who possess incomprehensible power, such as Roo, are capable of completely destroying Ophanim, even easily.
- Photokinesis: Ophanim has a natural inner glow that completely illuminates its surroundings. It can also use light as a weapon by firing a divine jet of pure light from its eyes.
- Pyrokinesis: Ophanim can produce blessed fire capable of razing entire landscapes and bringing mass destruction to their environment.
- Rings: Ophanim are perpetually surrounded by their signature rings. These rings can essentially act as a shield in the case that their auras fail them, and each rings are nigh-indestructible to even the most powerful of demon magic.
- Size-Shifting: Ophanim can change its size at will, appearing as small as Heaven's Light when traveling with its superiors, but can grow up to the size of a mountain or large enough to cover the sky itself.
- Teleportation: Ophanim can instantly travel to its desired locations via teleportation, disappearing and reappearing in a flash of blinding light.
Quotes Pertaining to the Ophanim[]
Holy Hell[]
- "(giggling) Look at you two! You two dumplings are always so no-nonsense, it's nice to see you letting your hair down a bit! (stammering) I- I- I mean that figuratively, of course..."
- — Asherah to her Ophanim bodyguards upon seeing them vibing to music.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- They are based on the Ophanim, a class of extremely powerful angels described as eye-covered wheels who are as large as the sky itself and guard the throne of God.
- Their name means "wheels" in Hebrew.
- Their theme song would be "Mal'akh" by Violent Winter.
- Ophanim are the only non-humanoid angel species that has been shown so far, a testament to their incredible power.
- While possessing the ability to converse, the Ophanim's speech remains intelligible solely to angelic beings and select saints. When they do speak, the auditory experience for non-angels is a distorted, prolonged resonance akin to the reverberations of a resounding trumpet.
- The Seven Heavenly Virtues also have two Ophanim each that are tasked with protecting them. Michael's two Ophanim guards are apparently named Gideon and Rufus, and are the only named Ophanim besides the head Ophanim.