Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing Help

Tools

Toys

Narrative

Genre

Media

Topical Tropes

Other Categories

Custom Search

"The time for using the knife to remove this cancer is long gone. Bring forth the torch."
Exarch Quaillindral, Warhammer 40000

"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire."
Jaya Ballard, task mage, Magic The Gathering , Sizzle

What do you do when you are besieged by zombies, werewolves, mummies, witches, aliens, and sundry other supernatural or pseudoscientific critters? Kill them with Fire!

Prometheus did not just give humanity the light of reason and progress when he handed us fire, but the means to dispatch just about any monster imaginable. (Considering how Greek Myth is a Fantasy Kitchen Sink, that was a good thing!) The symbolism behind this (if any is to be had) has to do with fire's associations with purification and light, and partly because it represents humanity's dominion over the natural world.

Also, in a pinch, it can still burn things, or at least scare them off. Arrows On Fire, Flaming Swords, flamethrowers or good old Torches And Pitchforks can work wonders when dealing with everything from Frankensteins Monster to killer trees.

This is prevalent not just in myth and fiction or games based on it, but also in works that are completely new and unrelated. For example the Hydra and Trolls demonstrate one of the most frequent, and logical, applications for anti-monster fire: It prevents regeneration. In the case of The Undead, usually they're too dumb and slow to put it out (zombies), it reminds them of the sun (vampires) or they're already walking kindling (mummies). Aliens, of course, can be Immune To Bullets but will burn up nicely in fire and not go into Body Horror or Biological Mashup. Witches for a long time were considered to be in league with evil as well, and so it was a common myth that they were dealt with in the same manner.

The best part? Even if the monster you're fighting turns out to just be a guy in a mask messing with you, fire still works really, really well against mundane threats. Sure, most of these could also be stopped by flash-freezing, but that only tends to make them the grandkids' problem...and is nowhere near as fun.

See also Incendiary Exponent, Man On Fire, and Hellfire. When this just makes things worse, see Infernal Retaliation. A character who's a little too enthusiastic about using this can become a Pyro Maniac. The less-used opposite is either Kill It With Water or Kill It With Ice. If something's too big or tough for a regular fire, you can always Hurl It Into The Sun. This has also been subject to Memetic Mutation.

Compare Stuff Blowing Up.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Ancient Mythology 

    Anime & Manga 

    The Bible 

    Card Games 

    Comic Books 

    Film 

    Literature 

    Live Action TV 

    Tabletop Games 

    Video Games 

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 

    Web Original 

    Real Life