History Main / YouHaveToBurnTheWeb

[[caption-width-right:340:A victory for pyromaniac urges.]]

* Manga/{{xxxHOLiC}}: In episode three of ''xxxHOLiC Rei'' there are a lot of spider's webs being set on fire (fox-fire that specifically anti-evil properties, mind you) and they even fall to the ground and continue to burn for a while. The villain comments twice on how fox-fire and spider's silk don't mix.

* ''VideoGame/TyTheTasmanianTiger'' ''loves'' this trope, and uses it as often as it can. Collectable on the level floor? Burn the web. Arched doorway? Torch it. It gets annoying quite quickly, as your [[ElementalPowers fire boomerangs]] are actually some of your weaker weapons, forcing you to cycle between it and a better one, often while under attack by [[GiantSpider funnel web spiders]].

* ''Videogame/DarkParables'': In the first game, there's a GiantSpider with an equally giant web blocking a doorway through which you must go. Naturally, the only recourse is to burn the web, but you can't do so until you acquire the necessary PlotCoupon (a torch).

* ''Comicbook/SpiderMan'': Inverted. Peter occasionally uses his webs to put out fires. Of course, depending on the version, it may or may not be real spider silk he's using.

* In one of the 1970s ''ComicBook/ConanTheBarbarian'' comics, Conan and the GirlOfTheWeek are up against the girl's father, who made a DealWithTheDevil of sorts and ended up with powers to control spiders of all sizes. His entire palace is a CobwebJungle, and Conan burns it down in the climax.

* ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'' when Gizmo shoots the spider gremlin with flaming arrows.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/SpoonysCampaign'': In one session, the party encounters a room full of spiderwebs and deals with them by [[RunningGag throwing a flaming bedroll]] into the room. Unfortunately these were phase spiders, which meant they teleported Creator/LordKaT's character Grae into the room with the burning webs while his friends were outside dealing with more monsters.
[[/folder]]

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' is one of the first video games to do this, showing up in the first dungeon. Later games have used the mechanic as well.

%%* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'': One of the side missions gives Shepard a flamethrower weapon for just this purpose.%%What purpose?

%%* ''VideoGame/SavageEmpire'' does it about a decade before ''Zelda''.%%ZCE. Does what?

* ''Literature/TheQuestOfTheUnaligned'': The fire-spiders take this UpToEleven by shooting web that's on fire in the first place.

A bit of Artistic License -- spider silk does shrivel quite rapidly when exposed to intense heat (so yes, [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill a flamethrower can clear out cobwebs]]), but it doesn't actually burn, much less cause the pyrotechnics that people have come to expect in fiction. On the other hand, the ''dust'' that collects on old cobwebs usually is flammable, so sometimes those dusty old cobwebs really [[JustifiedTrope are as burnable as fiction makes them appear]]. But in fiction, even clean, freshly spun spider silk can (and usually will) go up in flames.

* ''"Literature/HawkAndFisher'':
** Used in the prison ColdOpen of ''The Bones of Haven''. Complicated by the fact that this particular CobwebJungle is ''alive'', and mobile enough to freak out when it starts to burn.
** Subverted in "Down Among the Dead Men". When confronted by a gigantic web that blocks their way, some bandits try to set it alight, but the flame only blackens the material without igniting it. [[spoiler: That's because the "web" actually ''is'' a monster, not something a monster built.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[WebComic/VGCats https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yhtbtw_vgcats_9855.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:A victory for pyromaniac urges.]]