Burning with Anger - Television Tropes & Idioms

Congratulations! Your Twilight Sparkle has evolved into Rapidash!

A common way of showing extreme anger for a character is to have them burst (whole or in part) into flame. This can either be a visual metaphor for anger, or played literally if they posess fire-manipulating abilities.

Much like hot sauce, comes in mild, medium, and hot varieties — the hotter the anger, the more you can expect to see the following:

Mild Bell Pepper: The character reddens several shades but doesn't spontaneously combust. Steam may come out of their ears with a tea-kettle whistle.
Medium Picante: Their eyes turn red and/or have twin flames, usually paired with Glowing Eyes of Doom.
Hot Jalape�o: Flaming Hair erupts, usually also growing in length.
Hellish Haba�ero: The character is Wreathed in Flames.
Volcanic Ghost Chili: The character's body can literally be scorched like volcanic ash, and lava might start spewing out.

If the character has Pyrokinesis, Power Incontinence, and is Hot Blooded, anything that causes anger is likely to manifest this way. If said character is evil, he/she will always be like this when angry. If the flames don't cause property damage they're probably Cold Flames. It can also overlap with Fireball Eyeballs.

Compare Demon Head, High Pressure Emotion, Nightmare Face, Turns Red (a mostly Video Game equivalent dealing with heightened difficulty that sometimes involves this).

Not to be confused with Angst Nuke, which is not just a visual metaphor, but actually dangerous.

Examples

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Anime and Manga

The Super Saiyan transformation in Dragon Ball Z starts out as equal parts this trope and Super-Powered Evil Side, but later on the warriors discover a way to trigger it at will.
Sanji in One Piece, occasionally.
- He burned up so much in Thriller Bark over the thought of an "invisible man" (Absalom) peeping on Nami that he sent out shockwaves. At one point Chopper said, "Awesome! He exploded!"
  - He even weaponized it in the Fishman island arc where he used it as an finishing attack after thinking about the last two years he spent on Kamabakka Island
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Joey Wheeler does this when he gets really riled up. A good way to make this happen is to pretend to be his Only Mostly Dead Love Interest just to screw with him. Or call him names. Or just be Kaiba.
Rin from Blue Exorcist goes into a Technicolored volcanic version of this whenever he gets really pissed off, scared, or draws his katana.
Happens to Tatsuki in an early episode of Bleach. And this is AFTER rampaging through the classroom trying to murder Ichigo◊. His transgression? Kissing her on the cheek.
In Pok�mon, after Misty called her old, Jessie got so angry she started breathing fire!
Meowth: Jessie just evolved into a Flareon!
- When Team Rocket stole food from a restaurant she wanted to eat at, May was so pissed that not only was she wreathed in flames twice, but her eyes were glowing red.
  Dawn: What happened to our princess...?!
In the "Sweet & Sour Puss" episode of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Dedede explodes into a volcanic rage wreathing himself with a firey glow both around his eyes and his body after Togeira stores enough anger within itself to unleash a mega-attack on his own castle. He even screams "Now it's payback time!" as he does so.
When Natsu from Fairy Tail gets pissed he gets covered in flames. Give that he's the Fire Dragon Slayer, it's rather appropriate.
In one of the Ranma � Anime (but not manga) episodes (Genma Takes A Walk) Genma makes a declaration that is so Hot Blooded that it causes his head to catch fire. Literally.
Naruto's 4-tailed transformation is this trope, literally. Bloodshot eyes, peeling skin, boiling blood, all while Naruto sports a face of pure, unadulterated rage. Cue Angst Nuke.
K: Literally happens with Mikoto Suoh in episode 6 when he remembers what Tatara's murderer said in the video clip after shooting Tatara.

Comic Books

Walter ("Wallop") of ClanDestine has the power to transform into a Hulk-like blue monster- either voluntarily, or involuntarily when enraged. In the latter case, his hair bursts into flame (and he gets a whole lot bigger and more monstrous in appearance). If he transformed on purpose while relatively calm, his hair just changes color rather than burning.

Fan Fic

Calvin turns red while busting out his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Hobbes in Calvin and Hobbes: The Series.
Magnetism combines this with a slasher smile when Twilight sees Rainbow Dash throwing her bracelet to the ground, shattering it. Rainbow and Fluttershy respond to this by running like hell while exchanging friendly banter with each other.

Film

Charlie in Firestarter has Pyrokinesis and Power Incontinence, but when she's angry at somebody else, she doesn't burst into flame — they do. And ditto the Roaring Rampage of Revenge at the end of the film.
Played for Laughs in Hellboy 2, where the now dating Liz and Hellboy have romantic spats that involve her involuntarily melting/burning parts of the base... and purposely launching vault doors at Hellboy. Luckily, being half-demon means he can literally take the heat.
Hades in Hercules always has a blue flame of hair on his head, when he gets mad it flares up, goes red and/or his whole body erupts in flame depending on the level of anger.
Anyone treated with Extremis in Iron Man 3.
Mrs. White mentions feeling this way in Clue:
"I hated her, so much... Flames, flames, on the side of my face..."

Literature

In the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, fire witches' hair bursts into flame whenever they become ticked off.

Live-Action TV

In Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, this is the first part of Ninjaman's reaction to being called "blue squirt". Flames spread across his visor. The other part is growing large if he isn't already and powering up into Samuraiman. Ninjor, his Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers counterpart, wasn't always angry when he transformed, but when he was...
Ninjor: Evil makes me so angry! Bad just burns me up!
In Engine Sentai Go-onger, Kegalesia goes to Mild Bell Pepper level hilariously. Usually, one of her co-villains turns the valve on the side of her head to release steam.

Myth

Celtic hero Cu Chulainn was known for his very literally hot temper. He was once dunked into three barrels of icy water to cool him down after a berserker rage - the first barrel heated up so quickly that it exploded, while the second quickly boiled away.

Video Games

In Disgaea, Etna and Flonne get flaming eyes when Laharl points out they're too flat-chested to trigger his phobia of sexy women.
'Etna & Flonne: Well, excuse us for being flat!
Used as a gameplay element in Super Princess Peach, whenever Peach uses her Anger Vibe she erupts in flames and can burn anything she touches.
Axel from Kingdom Hearts sometimes. Makes sense since he is a pyro.
Asura from Asura's Wrath eventually gets so angry his anger eventually literally scorches his body. This is rectified later when yasha implants the Mantra reactor of the Karma fortress into Asura to handle the energy better.
In World of Warcraft, Warriors can use a Glyph of Burning Anger to invoke the Wreathed in Flames version of this trope any time they become Enraged.
Mega Man X8: Once you hurt a boss enough, he goes into an "angry" mode where he uses stronger attacks. This is signified by having a temmporary shield of flames appearing around him.

Webcomics

Bob and George: Bob has fire producing/manipulating abilities so he tends to go through all the phases depending on just how mad he gets.
- Applies, of course, to Very Alternate Bob as well. Ironically he's only ever seen angry enough to burst into flames once in the entire series, and hilariously, it's rainbow-colored.
Being a teen ifrit, Laura has this issue.
This happens to Fae and demons quite often in Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures , most noticeably when Dan makes a comment that sets Abel off. While Abel still appears calm and is speaking rationally, his entire body is engulfed in flames that he doesn't seem to notice-but Dan does.
This happens to those with the power of fire in Pacificators. It actually goes beyond the typical 'burning' and straight into life-threatening heatstrokes, so they actually need to cool themselves down quickly.
This happens to Grace of El Goonish Shive when she believes her friends are threatened by Jerry the Immortal.

Web Original

Happens to Mars in a later chapter of The Return after a power up, and almost sets an entire room alight..

Western Animation

Katie Kaboom does this on Animaniacs once a month.
- In a Goodfeathers short, Pesto bursts into flames when he finds out his mother is marrying a 20 year old seagull. Bobby and Squit immediately dump him into the nearby ocean to put him out.
The villain named Father from Codename Kids Next Door can coat himself with and manipulate fire, but he flares up accordingly as he gets angrier.
Wanda of The Fairly OddParents has gotten angry enough that the flames show up in her eyes, and her hair lights on fire.
- Vicky has also gotten angry enough that the flames show up in her eyes.
In the 2002 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon when Skeletor got mad his otherwise empty eye sockets would form glowing red lights in them. The madder he was the bigger and brighter they got. (may not be actual fire so much as magical energy but same principle)
In the Looney Tunes short "My Favorite Duck", Porky Pig gets so angry he bursts into flames, is reduced to ashes, then reforms out of a column of smoke.
Raven from the animated Teen Titans gets blue flames shooting from her head when angry at her annoying teammates.
The above picture is from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Feeling Pinkie Keen".
- Spike also gets in on the act in "Owl's Well That Ends Well". A feather he went through a lot of trouble to obtain for Twilight spontaneously combusts after he finds out Owlysius had already given her one of his feathers.
- Pinkie Pie becomes steaming mad when Applejack tries to weasel out of a Pinkie Promise in "The Last Roundup".
  "No pony breaks a pinkie promise!"
When villains throughout Winx Club do something that pushes Bloom to far, she becomes so angry that her whole body literally becomes enveloped within a mass of flames, letting them know that they're completely and totally screwed because she's about to unleash the full force of the Dragon Flame power on them.
In Avatar The Last Airbender and Fire Bender without sufficient control can do this when angry. This can be shown by anything from smoking hands to screaming fire blasts. For obvious reasons, its something of a safety hazard.
- In Sequel Series The Legend of Korra Airbending mentor Tenzin's head will redden heavily when sufficiently angered, usually prompted by something his rebellious student Korra has said.
Lucius on Jimmy Two-Shoes, frequently. Also happens to Heloise.
Flame Princess on Adventure Time does this frequently. As you'd expect.