History Main / ArrowsOnFire

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010''. Artemis and Zatana are fleeing Harm and lure him into his kitchen. Harm catches the arrow Artemis shoots at him, right before the door slams shut. He then notices the gas stove is turned on, and the arrow he's holding suddenly lights on fire.
-->'''Harm:''' Oh that little- ('''[[CurseCutShort BOOM]]!''')

** Although tracer rounds were modified for night-fighter use not only to tell the pilot where his bullets were going but also to set the target on fire. The first Zepellin to be shot down over England in 1917 was downed by tracers designed to ignite the hydrogen inside the airship's balloon; normal bullets just made entry and exit holes and left the structure largely intact. A bullet hot enough to ignite the contents in passing turned out to be an airship-killer, and a contributory reason why they were discontinued from military use.

->''"And the students shooting flaming arrows, because, well ... you gotta' have flaming arrows..."''

Creators of fiction generally agree that [[IncendiaryExponent setting things on fire]] is awesome, so in military conflict they love to depict archers shooting volleys of flaming arrows at the enemy regardless of whether the situation is a field battle, a siege, or naval combat. A RainOfArrows looks cooler if the arrows trail fire as they streak through the sky, and it's especially cool when they're used at night so that they light up the air like laser beams. There is also a general assumption that any projectile that is on fire will inflict more damage than one that isn't. Whatever the arrows hit will catch on fire, be it tents, thatched roofs, wooden structures, or some hapless RedShirt, who--in addition to being pierced by an arrow--will immediately [[ManOnFire burst into flame]], writhing in panic before [[RailingKill falling off the battlements]] with a StockScream. On a larger scale, military forces might also fire giant flaming projectiles from siege artillery such as catapults and ballistae. Lastly, sometimes an archer will shoot a single flaming arrow into the sky like a flare, signaling a message to distant units.

Much of this is unrealistic, and is depicted that way for RuleOfCool. It's true that in real life, flaming arrows were used in certain situations where you needed to set inflammable structures on fire. However, fiction tends to ignore the drawbacks that made them unsuitiable for anti-personnel use, least of all in a pitched land battle. To get them to burn reliably one had to wrap them in inflammable material and light them first, making them heavier, reducing their range, and slowing the archers' shooting rate because of the preparation necessary. Also, wrapping a cloth around the arrowhead or using an arrowhead with a cage behind the point to contain the incendiary material would blunt its ability to penetrate armor and ''kill people'' like a regular arrow is supposed to; wrapping the cloth some distance behind the arrowhead might improve its ability to penetrate a target, but then it might slip off or be less likely to set a fire. Also, the mere speed of the arrow's flight is often enough to douse the flame, so flaming arrows had to be fired at a slower velocity, making them less powerful and easier for enemies to dodge.

* And most of all, set inflammable material such as wooden buildings, siege engines, and ships on fire. Usually it would take a ''lot'' of fire arrows to accomplish this, since most of them would be duds, but the enemy would have to divert their manpower making sure that none of them caught, since it would only take one or two good ones out of a hundred to set the target on fire. When it worked, it was devastatingly effective.

* ''Fanfic/TheFightWeChose'': During the Siege of Italica, the besieging brigands uses a mage to magically assist them in enchanting fire arrows to stay alight for the duration of their flight, giving them slightly more potency then real-life applications of this trope. They later strap flammable material onto ballistae and similarly enchant them so they ''explode'' on impact, essentially recreating modern high explosive artillery.

* In ''Film/{{Justice|League 2017}} [[Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague League]]'', the Amazons shoot an arrow with a magical fire on it to ignite a temple dedicated to the Amazons in Greece. This happens after Steppenwolf stole the Mother Box they were guarding for millennia, and the fire was meant to warn the humanity about the invasion. Humanity has long forgotten about said fire's meaning, but not Diana.

* When the misguided hero leads his [[AllTrollsAreDifferent troll-like people]] to scare away a tribe of elves they've already driven to a beach in ''Film/RolloAndTheSpiritOfTheWoods'', he plans to initiate the attack by shooting a flaming arrow in the air. However, [[EveryoneHasStandards he's not too much into actually hurting anyone]], intending to shoot the arrow so that it'll fall in the sea. Unfortunately, his much more malevolent adviser "accidentally" strikes him as he aims, causing the arrow to hit one of the elves' tents and set the camp ablaze. This alone gets the hero regret his decision.

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Troy}}'', where the Trojans use conventional arrows to kill people. When they ''do'' use flaming arrows, they instead deliberately shoot into the area between the two armies. Then they bring enormous balls of dried grass (probably doused in an accelerant) and roll them down the hill into the flaming arrows. They ignite into massive rolling balls of fire, and cause more damaged than regular fire arrows could have. Also subverted in the actual Iliad, for the same reason -- they also used firebrands.

* ''Literature/YoungSherlockHolmes'': In ''Red Leech'', Sherlock uses flaming arrows to set fire to the Union Army's hydrogen filled balloons.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones''. Tyrion gives the specific order, "Rain fire on them" when Stannis is landing his forces before the castle walls in the Battle of Blackwater. There seems no reason to use flaming arrows except for psychological purposes (earlier a flaming arrow was used to set off a [[GreekFire wildfire]] explosion) and all it does it cause their toughest soldier to have a HeroicBSOD when he sees a ManOnFire. Tends to stick out as in [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire the novels on which its based]], Creator/GeorgeRRMartin avoids HollywoodTactics -- flaming arrows are only used when someone wants to set a building on fire. In the wildlings' attack on Castle Black, ''both'' sides use flaming arrows for no discernible reason whatsoever, yet during the battle at Hardhome no flaming arrows are used despite [[KillItWithFire that being a weakness of the undead wights]] (that was a surprise attack however, so they wouldn't have much time to prepare the arrows). Their drawbacks are portrayed realistically when they're being used to ignite a flaming barricade in The Battle of the Long Night, and most of them are blown out by cold winds.

* ''VideoGame/TheBattleForMiddleEarth'' plays this in a similar manner to the above. Fire Arrows, an upgrade for most archer units, adds a decent damage boost vs most normal units, and makes them much more effective vs buildings. It also allows them to cause damage to the wooden walls and gate of Rohan castle defenses. In [=BFME2=] Men of the West keep fire arrows, but Elves get silverthorn blue-glowy arrows. Dwarves get axe throwers (upgraded by forged axes) ''and'' human archers of dale -- upgraded with fire arrows. All the bad guys get ''Orcfire'' arrows, because ''fire set by Orcs is just better''.

* General Yohm in ''Videogame/BreathOfFireIV'' deploys a squad of soldiers armed with burning arrows early in in the game, in a bid to destroy Fou-Lu.

* Burning and explosive arrows are present in the ''Videogame/{{Clonk}}'' games and their (official and fan-made) expansions,along with many other varieties of arrows.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', the first move the battle of Ostagar opens up with the Fereldens launching a volley of flaming arrows at the charging darkspawn horde. It does little to slow them down. In the game proper one can equip quivers of fire arrows, ice arrows, filth arrows, etc. There's also a sidequest where you have to fire a flaming signal arrow, but that signal also serves to ''draw'' people to the shooter as well as warn others. Darkspawn are weak against magical fire.
* In ''VideoGame/DragonsCrown'', the Elf's Salamander Oil skill lets her turn her arrows into flaming arrows. Throw in some Clone Strikes for some RainOfArrows goodness and she could set a large part of the battle field ablaze.

* In ''VideoGame/EmpireEarth'', flaming arrows are only available to Greece, because they are all doused in the legendary Greek fire. These will deal bonus damage to normal units, but are most effective against buildings, where even one arrow has a chance to engulf it in a firestorm.
* You can get these in the ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'' series, if you use a Flame Augmentation on any bow.
* In ''VideoGame/FarCry4'', the player can deploy these, and their main utility is in igniting plant growth from a distance, and thus potentially causing a bushfire right next to your enemies. However, you are more likely to see these arrows used by the Royal Army Hunters, which act as a counter to the common player tactic of sniping while hidden in the bushes. After all, a single flaming arrow will set the bush and all the growth around it on fire, and if the wouned player manages to escape the flames, the entire outpost will take notice and try to finish them off.

* Used realistically in two situations in ''VideoGame/KingdomComeDeliverance''. The first time it's used is in the battle at Vranik where your side burn the tents inside the fortified ruins to cause some chaos as you attack. The second time is when Istvan Toth's forces take Talmberg and shoot at the thatch roofs of nearby structures to force your side to retreat.

* In ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' series you can occasionally obtain fire arrows for your bow... as well as ice arrows that freeze enemies, light arrows that beat enemies in one hit, and ''[[TrickArrow bomb arrows]]''. Most arrows are implied to be magical, but you can still set regular arrows on fire by shooting them trough burning torches. ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' gives fire arrows to Bulblins (and their twilight counterparts), which typically do [[AnnoyingArrows minimal damage]] and can be swatted out of the air with your sword. If you're wearing the Zora armor, however, they do a massive six times normal damage. Out of combat, Fire Arrows are used on two separate occasions to trap you on a bridge coated with oil. ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' also lets you set your regular arrows on fire, whether by sticking them in an open flame already present or using one period in the [[LethalLavaLand Eldin region]], for a similar if weaker effect to proper Fire Arrows.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLostVikings'', some levels have a fire arrow item for Baleog. If he uses it, all arrows he shoots from then on will be on fire, and can take out otherwise invincible enemies.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Painkiller}}'', Stakegun's projectiles will catch on fire if they travel far enough. And if the stake hits a Stakegun grenade in mid-air, it ignites, and accelerates like a rocket.

* In ''VideoGame/RyseSonOfRome'', every arrow fired at you while you move with the others in the testudo formation is on fire, so that you can spot them. When Marius is moving alone, they'll sometimes be on fire, and sometimes they are plain, and there'll be an "incoming" warning, so that you can either deflect or evade them.
* ''VideoGame/RomancingSaGa3'' had Plasma shot, Arrows with electricity imbued into them, the Remake of the original game had a similar technique, and a technique in which you can summon a lightning bolt from an arrow shot.

** ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammer'': Flaming arrows exist as an upgrade for Bretonnia's archer units. Like in previous ''Total War'' titles, they deal less damage than regular arrows but deal incredible morale damage. They are also very effective against units that take extra damage from fire attacks. This gives them a sort of situational usefulness for Bretonnia, since the factions it usually ends up fighting in the campaign -- the Wood Elves and the Vampires of Mousillon -- have a lot of units (tree spirits for the first and undead for the second) that are very vulnerable to fire attacks.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Warcraft 3]]'' has Searing Arrows, a spell which sets arrows on fire for added damage in exchange for a bit of mana. It also has Frost Arrows, which slow the enemy down too. Orc catapults could be upgraded to have their ammo covered in burning oil, lighting the ground on fire to deal extra damage to anything in its area of effect.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Wildsio}}'', this is the special attack of a bow. It does 0,5 damage more than a normal arrow (which matters given that the starting health is 8, and it doesn't get much higher), travels a lot faster, and is capable of OverPenetration. Its most important feature, however, is not consuming any stamina when fired, and knocking its target down. This makes it into a valuable emergency skill that gives you breathing space when a player with a melee weapon is about to close in.

* ''WebVideo/{{Lindybeige}}'': Addressed in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTd_0FRAwOQ this video]], where he discusses why they ''didn't'' use fire arrows in open battles despite how it's always shown in movies because it's a silly idea for anything except sieges and naval warfare. All the modifications to the arrow necessary for it to stay burning when it's shot reduce its range and penetrating power, and you can't really set a man on fire through his clothes or armor before he puts it out. They also can't be fired at anywhere near the same rate as regular arrows. In short, they're useless as anti-personnel weapons, and only good for setting buildings and ships on fire.

* Modern day Incendiary Rounds are the Bullet version of a Flaming Arrow. Tracers are less so: the primary purpose of a tracer is to tell the shooter where he hits (or used at designated parts of a magazine to keep count of bullets remaining), and are a less then ideal choice for setting things aflame.[[HollywoodTactics Hollywood]] uses both tracers and flaming arrows at times when it would be ineffective, typically because both put on a better light show then their regular, oftentimes more practical, counterparts.
** Although tracer rounds were modified for night-fighter use not only to tell the pilot where his bullets were going, but also to set the target on fire. The first Zepellin to be shot down over England in 1917 was downed by tracers designed to ignite the hydrogen inside the airship's balloon; normal bullets just made entry and exit holes and left the structure largely intact. A bullet hot enough to ignite the contents in passing turned out to be an airship-killer, and a contributory reason why they were discontinued from military use.

* These fly overhead in the opening scene of ''Film/TheRevenant'', as the Ree attack.

* Justified in ''Film/BenHur'' (2016), as the burning arrows are followed by catapulted pitch in an effort to set the warships on fire.

* In ''{{Mabinogi}}'', standing next to a campfire and drawing your arrow will cause the arrowhead to catch fire. This gives the arrow a damage bonus and fire element status. Also, landing 3 critical hits with this grants you the Fire Arrow title, which is needed in order to get the Arrow Revolver skill.

* The nephews used charcoal-tipped fire arrows against DonaldDuck during the snowball fight in "Snow Fight".

* In ''Film/JusticeLeague2017'', the Amazons shoot an arrow with a magical fire on it to ignite a temple dedicated to the Amazons in Greece. This happens after Steppenwolf stole the Mother Box they were guarding for millennia, and the fire was meant to warn the humanity about the invasion. Humanity has long forgotten about said fire's meaning, but not Diana.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Zorro}}'', the titular protagonist saves an old friend of Don Diego from hanging by shooting the rope with a flaming arrow. However, he does so before the trapdoor is opened, thus leaving time enough for the fire to burn the rope. He also [[PinnedToTheWall pins the executor's sleeve to the gallows]] by firing another arrow to prevent him from interfering.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* A strip from ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' had a defender of a wagon train say about the attacking natives: "They're lighting their arrows! Can they ''do'' that?"
* The fence ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} performs on once got burned to ashes by unidentified assailants (implied to be some of his hecklers) using these.

[[folder:Religion and Mythology]]
* ''Myth/ClassicalMythology'': The Lernaean Hydra made its lair in a swamp that was full of toxic fumes. Heracles fired flaming arrows into the swamp to lure it out.
[[/folder]]

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', magically enchanted Flaming Arrows are inexpensive enough to be available for purchase in bulk in the average large town or small city, assuming you don't just buy a Flaming Bow, which bestows the Flaming quality on any arrows it fires. Then there's the Arcane Archer prestige class that can imbue arrows with spells as their entire shtick, and the Wizard and Sorcerer base classes that don't even need the arrow when they want to burn things.
** Depending on the edition your wizards -- and sorcerers, if available -- may also have potential access to the Flame Arrow ''spell'', whose main purpose is to turn a bunch of regular projectiles (that somebody hopefully remembered to have on hand) into exactly this for a while or until used, whichever comes first. (The spell gets somewhat overshadowed by the more iconic Fireball, but has its applications.)

[[folder:Webcomics]]

[[folder:Web Video]]

* In ''Film/JusticeLeague2017'', the Amazons shoot an arrow with a magical fire on it to ignite a temple dedicated to the Amazons in Greece. This happens after Steppenwolf stole the Mother Box they were guarding for millenia, and the fire was meant to warn the humanity about the invasion. Humanity has long forgotten about said fire's meaning, but not Diana.

* Multiple times in ''Film/TheGatlingGun'' the Apaches pepper the troopers with flaming arrows; including setting fire to the wagon that Sneed is tied to.

* ''Film/RobinHoodMenInTights'' parodies the trope's overuse in Myth/RobinHood films. It features an opening credits sequence back by random shots of people shooting ArrowsOnFire... and then they show the thatch-roofed village that they destroyed with these arrows "every time they make a new Robin Hood movie."

--> "Fire arrows! [[RuleOfCool They're just so cool, aren't they?]] You've seen them in the movies, and they look like [[FrickinLaserBeams laser guns]]!..They must have used them in battles, didn't they? ..I mean, people being shot, just fire, burning and *PSHHHHT* "AAARGH!" They must have used them, right, right, yeah? *deadpan* [[ArtisticLicenseHistory No.]]

* ''Series/GameOfThrones''. Tyrion gives the specific order, "Rain fire on them" when Stannis is landing his forces before the castle walls in the Battle of Blackwater. There seems no reason to use flaming arrows except for psychological purposes (earlier a flaming arrow was used to set off a [[GreekFire wildfire]] explosion) and all it does it cause their toughest soldier to have a HeroicBSOD when he sees a ManOnFire. Tends to stick out as in [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire the novels on which its based]], Creator/GeorgeRRMartin avoids HollywoodTactics -- flaming arrows are only used when someone wants to set a building on fire. In the wildlings' attack on Castle Black, ''both'' sides use flaming arrows for no discernible reason whatsoever, yet during the battle at Hardhome no flaming arrows are used despite [[KillItWithFire that being a weakness of the undead wights]] (that was a surprise attack however, so they wouldn't have much time to prepare the arrows). Their drawbacks are portrayed realistically when they're being used to ignite a flaming barricade in The battle of the long night, and most of them are blown out by cold winds.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones''. Tyrion gives the specific order, "Rain fire on them" when Stannis is landing his forces before the castle walls in the Battle of Blackwater. There seems no reason to use flaming arrows except for psychological purposes (earlier a flaming arrow was used to set off a [[GreekFire wildfire]] explosion) and all it does it cause their toughest soldier to have a HeroicBSOD when he sees a ManOnFire. Tends to stick out as in [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire the novels on which its based]], Creator/GeorgeRRMartin avoids HollywoodTactics -- flaming arrows are only used when someone wants to set a building on fire. In the wildlings' attack on Castle Black, ''both'' sides use flaming arrows for no discernible reason whatsoever, yet during the battle at Hardhome no flaming arrows are used despite [[KillItWithFire that being a weakness of the undead wights]] (that was a surprise attack however, so they wouldn't have much time to prepare the arrows).

** In ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'', this upgrade is required to produce gunpowder units.

Much of this is unrealistic, and is depicted that way for RuleOfCool. It's true that in real life, flaming arrows were used in certain situations where you needed to set inflammable structures on fire. However, fiction tends to ignore the drawbacks that made them unsuitiable for anti-personnel use, least of all in a pitched land battle. To get them to burn reliably one had to wrap them in inflammable material and light them first, making them heavier, reducing their range, and slowing the archers' shooting rate because of the preparation necessary. Also, wrapping a cloth around the arrowhead or having an arrowhead with a cage behind the point to contain the burning cloth would blunt its ability to penetrate armor and ''kill people'' like a regular arrow is supposed to; wrapping the cloth some distance behind the arrowhead might improve its ability to penetrate a target, but then it might slip off or be less likely to set a fire. Also, the mere speed of the arrow's flight is often enough to douse the flame, so flaming arrows had to be fired at a slower velocity, making them less powerful and easier for enemies to dodge.

Much of this is unrealistic, and is depicted that way for RuleOfCool. It's true that in real life, flaming arrows were used in certain situations where you needed to set flammable structures on fire. However, fiction tends to ignore the drawbacks that made them unsuitiable for anti-personnel use, least of all in a pitched land battle. To get them to burn reliably one had to wrap them in flammable material and light them first, making them heavier, reducing their range, and slowing the archers' shooting rate because of the preparation necessary. Also, wrapping a cloth around the arrowhead or having an arrowhead with a cage behind the point to contain the burning cloth would blunt its ability to penetrate armor and ''kill people'' like a regular arrow is supposed to; wrapping the cloth some distance behind the arrowhead might improve its ability to penetrate a target, but then it might slip off or be less likely to set a fire. Also, the mere speed of the arrow's flight is often enough to douse the flame, so flaming arrows had to be fired at a slower velocity, making them less powerful and easier for enemies to dodge.

* And most of all, set flammable material such as wooden buildings, siege engines, and ships on fire. Usually it would take a ''lot'' of fire arrows to accomplish this, since most of them would be duds, but the enemy would have to divert their manpower making sure that none of them caught, since it would only take one or two good ones out of a hundred to set the target on fire. When it worked, it was devastatingly effective.

Therefore there is nothing necessarily ridiculous about them being used en masse to attack tents and wooden buildings or to try to panic a civilian population, but the trope gets taken to unrealistic extremes when they are ''always'' used in night battles even in situations where the lighting-things-on-fire factor would be a non-factor, such as when attacking a stone castle (except when the attacking army is in a position to shoot ''over'' the walls and there are wooden buildings on the inside -- which there usually are -- in which case it's justified). They would also ''not'' be able to set people on fire by hitting them like they do in the movies, since making arrows that rapidly flammable is impossible without the modern petrochemicals they use for this effect in films.

* In the Drum arc of ''Manga/OnePiece'', Chess fires flaming arrows at Sanji and Chopper after Kuromarimo throws balls of highly flammable hair at them.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal, Miss Alice Band is one of the Assassins' Guild's go-to people on archery and projectile weapons. Alice will use flaming arrows if absolutely necessary - for instance, when taking down classic brain-eating highly infectious Zombies from a necessary distance - but points out to her pupils that arrows take time to make and are expensive, and deliberately damaging them with flame means they are one-shot weapons which cannot be retrieved afterwards for re-use. She also points out that it is not advisable to hold the shot for too long before loosing, as your bow is also made of wood and, guess what, wood is also inflammable and can be damaged by exposure to fire.Damaging an expensive precision weapon for the sake of a showy display, she says, is not a bright idea.

* King Arthur's troops made use of these in ''Film/FirstKnight''. Interestingly, the arrows appeared to use something like magnesium as the flammable agent, which, at least, [[RuleOfCool looked cool.]] They took the trouble of baiting the enemy army into a lot of dry grass first.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In the Season 3 finale, the students have a flaming arrow unit in their offensive against the Mayor. Buffy-verse vampires tend to be about as flammable as the average person after a dip in the ol' gasoline swimming pool. Which makes a flashback scene in the spin-off ''Series/{{Angel}}'' rather puzzling, as Angelus is rescued from Holtz by some vampires firing flaming arrows for no reason whatsoever.

* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOrigins'', Bayek can light his nocked arrows on fire at any fire source in the vicinity, assuming his bow doesn't already have the On Fire legendary ability, and so can the enemy arches. It works best against the highly flammable reed boats on the Egyptian rivers and coastlines. Interestingly, it'll not work against the wooden triremes, but the living targets shot by flaming arrows (including yourself) will still get the burning status, and both lose health over time and become more vulnerable to the other kinds of damage.
** These make a comeback in the ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey''. While there are no highly flammable reed boats this time, this is compensated for by the appearance of explosive arrows as an eventual upgrade.

* The Romans had purposely made ballista bolts heads that held flammable material, as did medieval archers.

* Flaming arrows used by Medieval archers have a number of modifications from the normal arrow, in order to avoid some of the engineering challenges of such arrows (the difficulty in getting it to stick in the target, the added weight of the flammable material, etc.); some had longer and thicker shafts (so that they wouldn't snap off when fired, and won't set the bow or the archer's bow hand on fire), [[http://www.longbowandarrow.co.uk/ekmps/shops/richardhead/images/-cage-fire-head-medieval-style-arrowhead-9931-p.jpg cage-like heads]] (to allow them to stick into the target while burning), and such.

* Subverted during the siege of Jerusalem in ''Film/KingdomOfHeavan''. On the first night of the siege, the Saracens appear to be lighting and shooting fire arrows at the parapets of the city. When the "arrows get closer to impact, however, they are revealed to actually be flaming trebuchet projectiles...