History Main / InfernalRetaliation

* This significantly reduced the effectiveness of the flamethrower in the FirstPersonShooter ''Aliens Vs Predator'' for the PC, as setting aliens on fire would simply result in them continuing to attack you while on fire, and since they're already extremely fast attackers, this usually meant you dying [[NintendoHard even more quickly than usual]]. This was adjusted in ''Aliens Vs Predator 2'', where, since Aliens aren't so goddamn fast anymore, the flamethrower kills 'em real good before they can get to you.

The evil twin of ManOnFire, IncendiaryExponent, and OutOfTheInferno, this is where the heros set whatever is trying to kill you on fire... and they continue to try and kill them. While on fire. And unlike [[EverythingsBetterWithIndexes some tropes]], everything is not better with fire.

* In ''TeamFortress2'', the soldier achievement Semper Fry requires you to kill opponents while on fire. To explain, on of the Soldier's melee weapons, the Equilizer, increases his speed and attack when he is at little health. So more damage = more power. Fire = more damage. Fire = more power.

In ''ForgottenRealms'' there is the undead monster "Blazing Bones". It's created when someone under death-preventing contingency magic is killed by fire while using another magic and one clashes with another. It is a skeleton with remains of its living mind, it's aflame, feels it and quickly discovers that hurling or pouring fire into someone else helps it. [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil very soon it's destructively insane]]. Magical fire damage "heals" it, but it's obviously not going to be grateful for this.

* It is noted both in ''WorldWarZ''and ''TheZombieSurvivalGuide'' that flaming zombies have caused added havok (and increased property damage) on more than one occasion.

* When El Tigre had to battle Santara Of the Dead's grandson; Django of The Dead. El Tigre managed to get Django to drop into a lava pit in the final battle, but came back using the lava around his hands and arms to blast himself back onto the platform and use said lava to retaliate. Until he accidentally touched his own guitar with his lava hands and destroyed himself.

[[AllBlueEntry Incidentally]], [[InfernalRetaliation burning]], [[DiagonalCut legless]] ZombieMooks [[ZombieGait dragging themselves along the ground towards you]], [[WhatMeasureIsAMook while what's left of the]] ZombieInfectee [[TheScream screams]] [[MercyKill in terrified]] [[FateWorseThanDeath agony]] [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong through a Face Full Of Alien Wing Wong]]... ''[[MostTriumphantExample definition of]]'' NightmareFuelUnleaded.

Tanks move at double speed when set on fire. [[{{Oh Crap}} Eep]].

* ''{{Blood}}'' allows you to set zombies on fire, and when they erupt into a zombie torch, they hurt you with touch.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nyarr.jpg
[[caption-width:324:"Well... now we know why Batman sent Orion..."]]

->Established wisdom for modern zombie hunters: The only thing worse than a horde of zombies is a horde of ''flaming'' zombies.\\
-- ''TheZombieSurvivalGuide''

What do you do when confronted with a monster, inhuman evil, or something annoying in general? And it's proving ImmuneToBullets? KillItWithFire!

Except, sometimes it backfires. (No pun intended.)

The evil twin of ManOnFire, IncendiaryExponent, and OutOfTheInferno, this is where you set whatever is trying to kill you on fire...and they continue to try and kill you. While on fire. And unlike [[EverythingsBetterWithIndexes some tropes]], everything is NOT better with fire.

Sometimes it's just a delayed reaction and the fire WILL prove fatal, but that's probably little comfort considering it may prove fatal to YOU first. Might also apply to NukeEm if the target is ''big''. EldritchAbomination: Bad. Eldritch Abomination that gets nuked, and stands back up pissed off and radioactive? Very bad.

* LupinIII features the first meeting of Lupin and eventual ally Goemon ending in this fashion; Lupin threw a special chemical onto the samurai that burst into flames when it came into contact with the air. Not content to let Lupin get away with this, Goemon tosses a flaming rope at Lupin, which lights him on fire as well and ends the fight. As it's ''Lupin'', [[IGotBetter They Got Better]].

* ''{{Fables}}'', in ''The March Of The Wooden Soldiers'' arc. [[BigBad The Adversary]] sends enchanted wooden soldiers to attack Fabletown, and the residents decide to fight wood with fire...the problem, as someone only gets to point out AFTER they've done it, is that hard wood burns, if at all, then very, very slowly, and... yeah, the evil puppets are made of, oops! Hard wood! And so now they're dealing with inhuman, nigh-unstoppable killer puppets that are on fire. And setting Fabletown on fire. Should have done the research, people.
** Well, they kinda were. Prince Charming called in that guns were useless against them, except for arming their enemies, so they probably expected the whole thing to be quite experimental.
* In one ''[[JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]]'' issue, Orion is set on fire while fighting a White Martian. Since fire happens to be a weakness of Martians, he just goes with it. (Pictured above.)
** Later, some of {{Batman}}'s [[CrazyPrepared emergency counter-JLA plans]] are stolen and used by Ra's al Ghul. The plan for the MartianManhunter uses nanites to set him on fire -- ''permanently''. Martians have a lot of stamina, so this doesn't kill J'onn right away, but it hurts like hell. The League manages to stabilize J'onn, but not before he burns down an entire forest in his blind agony. And in case you weren't already convinced ''{{Superfriends}}'' was a dirty, dirty lie, Aquaman gets to be the one who figures out a way around this: [[spoiler:let J'onn wear an Atlantean suit that keeps him immersed in water constantly]].

** For those of you who are wondering: no. Low-proof alcohol does not catch fire on its own (thank you, ''JohnDiesAtTheEnd,'' in which several characters are stuck in a van ''full of alcohol'' and decide to make Molotov cocktails; they have to ''sort through the booze'' to find something usable) (see the Three Musketeers film in which Aramis puts out a grenade's fuse by spraying it with champagne (about 10% alcohol)).
*** That's even the origin of the term "proof." Originally proof wasn't a number, it simply referred to proving the whiskey was high quality. What proved it was good enough? When you could mix it in equal parts with gunpowder and still burn the mixture.

* In the movie ''Evolution'', attempts to KillItWithFire result in a ''supermassive bacterium''.
** Does that strictly count? I know it was caused by fire, but it's not actually on fire.

* ''{{Ghostbusters}}''. Burning the Marshmallow Man wasn't 100 percent effective. Burning him [[CrossingTheStreams a lot more]] ''was''.
* When the infected are set on fire in ''28 Days Later'' it just seems to make them angrier.
** Molotov cocktails are seen used as effective weapon against them in the very first fight scene of the movie. Biologically they're just ordinary humans who don't feel pain, so they keep coming for a few moments, but the fire quickly takes them out.

** Oh yeah, the book was checked to make sure that it contains no false information.

* This trope is (or was, several editions ago) worked into the rules for ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'': The monstrous Tyranids were damaged as normal by fire attacks, but could continue moving and attacking.
** In fact, several models (particularly those who were [[AxeCrazy affected by the Frenzy rules]] were subject to this. Khorne Berzerkers were as tough as a [[SuperSoldier "normal"]] {{Space Marine}}, had even better armour and ran faster to get into combat, making it quite likely that turning a flamer on one would only lead to him running full pelt into you ''whilst on fire''.
** In previous editions, using ANY heat weapons (flamers, melta-guns, plasma weapons, and so on) did nothing to the Eldar Avatar... because he is a molten iron incarnation of the Eldar god of war. This has since been nerfed: he is now only immune to flamers and meltas.
** The Necrons, being ancient alien souls sealed inside advanced necrodermis bodies, aren't much bothered by fire, either.

** ... and PISSED.
** [[{{Comicbook/Doom}} That can't be good!]]
* Golems in several editions of DungeonsAndDragons are often strengthened by some magical attacks. For example, flesh golems are hasted by electrical attacks, and iron golems are healed by fire attacks.
** ForgottenRealms undead "Blazing Bones". It's created when someone under death-preventing contingency magic is killed by fire while using another magic and one clashes with another. It's a skeleton with remains of its living mind, it's aflame, feels it and quickly discovers that hurling or pouring fire into someone else helps it. [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil very soon it's destructively insane]]. Magical fire damage "heals" it, but it's obviously not going to be grateful for this.

* In ''{{Halo}} 3'', using fire against the Flood can sometimes lead to this. Sticky grenades [[OhCrap had a similar effect]] in the earlier games.
* The [[GoddamnedBats Keese]] from ''TheLegendOfZelda'' are generally invulnerable to straight-up fire attacks. This, in fact, usually sets THEM on fire, turning them into the far more dangerous Fire Keese.
** In the Oracle of Seasons/Ages games Fire Keese not only did more damage but also could fly above Link's sword's reach.
** In the handheld games, setting a [[TheMummy Gibdo on fire]] is a mixed bag, as the wrapping burns away to reveal a faster-moving, hopping Stalfos, who's harder to hit but takes far less damage to defeat. Probably worth it near the beginning of the game, when your dinky starting sword takes like 8 or 10 hits to defeat a Gibdo; perhaps not so much later.
** Ask any player about what happens when they accidentally got too close to a [[NightmareFuel Gibdos or ReDead]] in the 3D games after using a fire arrow but before the arrow finished them off.
* The boss of the Iifa Tree in ''FinalFantasyIX'' isn't very tough, unless you ''somehow'' assume that a wood-based creature is weak to fire, in which case you're in for a world of flaming hurt.
** [[ReviveKillsZombie Life magic, on the other hand...]]
* Occurred in the ''DwarfFortress'' LetsPlay ''[[http://fromearth.net/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/ Boatmurdered]]'' with Sankis- whose power, if anything, became even more terrifying once he was aflame.
** Not to mention the fact that the fortress' method for dealing with the various goblins invaders, killer elephant herds, and crazed mandrills became "flood everything outside the mountain with lava". [[spoiler: This eventually backfired ''fantastically'' when a puppy got caught in the lava outside and wouldn't stop burning. In itself this would have been fine, but one of the dwarves then decided to go and retrieve the puppy. That dwarf got lit on fire and went back into the fortress, not only igniting random things but also spreading smoke everywhere, which causes insanity. In the wake of this came Sankis' rampage mentioned above, which catalyzed a chain of events which eventually reduced the ''entire'' fortress into a desolate, smoking, miasma-filled ruin. Well, more of one than it already was, anyways....]]
** In general, earlier versions of ''DwarfFortress'' had dwarves be generally non-plussed about picking up things on fire and being on fire themselves, which was highly amusing until you realized it made it nearly impossible to keep a fire under control.
** Variant: Butchering a Fire Imp corpse occasionally sprays clouds of boiling fat everywhere, setting anything flammable in the room ablaze.
* Could be good or bad in ''OgreBattle 64'', depending on who you did it to and your outlook. Setting a Zombie on fire would cause them to pull a terminator-like transformation into a Skeleton. Happened both to enemy Zombies and your own Zombies. Skeletons were generally better than Zombies, but it was a huge pain to create them.
* This significantly reduced the effectiveness of the flamethrower in the FirstPersonShooter ''Aliens Vs Predator'' for the PC, as setting aliens on fire would simply result in them continuing to attack you WHILE ON FIRE, and since they're already extremely fast attackers, this usually meant you dying [[NintendoHard even more quickly than usual]]. This was adjusted in ''Aliens Vs Predator 2'', where, since Aliens aren't so goddamn fast anymore, the flamethrower kills 'em real good before they can get to you.
* Big Daddies of ''{{Bioshock}}'' have been known to continue trying to [[ThisIsADrill drill you]] while in flames (they will try for water when they can).
** Bioshock in general in fact; use caution when setting enemies on fire anywhere near an oil slick, especially if the [[ExplodingBarrels leaky barrels]] that created it are still there. That said, this can also work to your advantage, and is generally meant to. Also, unlike some games with fire weapons, stepping on their corpse while it's still burning deals damage to you, although it doesn't set you on fire (nothing in this game can).

* Generally speaking, setting the zombies in ''Left4Dead'' on fire is a very good idea. But the Hunters, although the flames will kill them eventually, get a ''huge'' boost to their attack power while they're burning.
** Said boost was later {{nerf}}ed by a patch, but is still present.
** Lighting the tank on fire will eventully kill him but untill then he will gain a small speed boost
** The Witch doesn't like fire either. Normally, she'll leave you alone if you're not the one who pissed her off, even if you're shooting her. But if you set her on fire while she's chasing the person who did, she'll ignore them and go after you instead. And once you're dead, she'll go after her original target.
* Done to hilarious effect in {{Timesplitters}}. Hell, there's even a game-mode based around it! (Virus) One person starts on fire and must find and light everyone else on fire. Also, it burns away ARMOR only first, then health. If you know where all the pickups are, in deathmatches you can continue to collect kills for a long while if you don't get hit too much, just by running into people and shooting them as they try and flee and find an extinguisher. Also everyone has hilarious screams while on fire, so you may as well do it anyway!
* The ents in ''TheLordOfTheRings: Battle for Middle Earth'' are normally slow and tough, but when set aflame they become enraged, moving and attacking much more quickly, while taking damage over time from the fire.
* While the {{Bomberman}} series more or less revolves around killing everything with fire based explosives, one of the possible skull item effects from Bomberman 64 and Bomberman 64: The Second Attack sets the person unfortunate enough to pick up the item on fire. While in this state, the burning bomber has about 30 seconds to kill everyone else with their burning body (can't use bombs since their body sets off any bombs he drops or touches) before the fire finally kills him.
* How the hell did we not mention TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld's final battle yet? What is cooler than [[spoiler:a BadAss DualWielding a sword and axe? A BadAss DualWielding a sword and axe who is ''on fire''. Oh, and don't forget [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome his battle theme]]. Or the fact that his [[LimitBreak Mystic Arte]] tells you that "The pain will only last an instant" despite the fact that he is ''sending enough hellfire to drown an entire planet'' your way.]]
* Flaming zombies in ''{{Doom}} 3''.
* In ''TeamFortress2'', the soldier achievement Semper Fry requires you to kill opponents while on fire.
** To explain, on of the Soldier's melee weapons, the Equilizer, increases his speed and attack when he is at little health. So more damage = more power. Fire = more damage. Fire = more power.
* ''SaintsRow 2'' has a damn minigame focused around this. You're driving an ATV while on fire and your job is to light as many people on fire as you can.

** "Fire BREATHING [dragon], Black Mage, not fire EATING."

* A [[NukeEm nuke]] was one of the methods proposed by the SCPFoundation to kill the so-far-indestructable SCP-682. It was turned down mainly because the brass was worried about what SCP-682 could become if it survived, as it generates a defense mechanism against whatever is used on it.
** One of the joke pages mentions launching SCP-682 into the sun with a giant cannon. It came back a little while later, on fire.

* In {{Beast Wars}}, Megatron, while in a temporarily weakened state due to an imminant {{Power Makeover}}, gets thrown into a pool of lava. The result? He emerges in dragon form.
* In the {{Family Guy}} episode "Lois Kills Stewie", when Lois assumes Stewie is dead after being caught in an explosion. He's not.

[[folder:{{Film}}s]]

** David Suzuki is crying somewhere.

** I'd kind of like to hear the first half of that story now.
** Their mother was a {{Terminator}}?

* It works even worse for the player in ''ReturnToCastleWolfenstein'': While flame works well against the sword'n'shield zombies, it turns the unarmed ghost-skull ones into mean firebreathing mofos.
** Their ''{{Wolfenstein}}'' successors, the Despoiled, are constantly engulfed in magical fire ''from the start''. Naturally, it's not a good idea to get too close to them. And, they're quite immune to the flamethrower.
* In ''{{Half-Life 2}}'', while regular headcrab zombies will scream and hold their arms out in agony when on fire, fast zombies don't even notice, right up until the point where they fall down and die from it. The fire doesn't do any additional damage to you, as far as I can tell, though. Poison zombies also seem to be oblivious to the flames when set on fire.
** [[AllBlueEntry Incidentally]], [[InfernalRetaliation burning]], [[DiagonalCut legless]] ZombieMooks [[ZombieGait dragging themselves along the ground towards you]], [[WhatMeasureIsAMook while what's left of the]] ZombieInfectee [[TheScream screams]] [[MercyKill in terrified]] [[FateWorseThanDeath agony]] [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong through a Face Full Of Alien Wing Wong]]... ''[[MostTriumphantExample definition of]]'' NightmareFuelUnleaded.

** Inverted with the other infected. Tanks last a maximum of 40 seconds before they burn to death. The common infected don't last long at all once set ablaze.
*** Latest patch causes this for the Tank - although he'll still only last 40 seconds, in Campaign mode his running speed doubles when set on fire. [[{{Oh Crap}} Eep]].
* ''{{Doom}} 3'' features a zombie (nicknamed Burnie) that is already on fire when it attacks you, however ordinary zombies seem abnormally sensitive to fire.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* When El Tigre had to battle Santara Of the Dead's grandson; Django of The Dead. El Tigre managed to get Django to drop into a lava pit in the final battle, but came back using the lava around his hands and arms to blast himself back onto the platform and use said lava to retaliate. Until he accidentally touched his own guitar with his lava hands and destroyed himself.

* Kat from ''Sequential Art'' [[http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=645 discovered]] what's worse than a homicidal zombie pirate.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* When El Tigre had to battle Santara Of the Dead's grandson; Django of The Dead. El Tigre managed to get Django to drop into a lava pit in the final battle, but came back using the lava around his hands and arms to blast himself back onto the platform and use said lava to retaliate. Until he accidentally touched his own guitar with his lava hands and destroyed himself.

[[folder:Myth and Legend]]
* In one traditional Cree story, two children are being chased by the severed head of their mother, and they start a wildfire behind them to stop her. However, she rolls straight through the fire, and then they're being chased by the ''flaming'' severed head of their mother. (Fortunately, shortly afterwards she goes through a river and the fire gets put out, but by then she's a skull.)
** I'd kind of like to hear the first half of that story now.
** Their mother was a {{Terminator}}?

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* An experiment in ''HighschoolOfTheDead'' demonstrates that a molotov cocktail does not, in the short term, improve an assault from [[NotUsingTheZWord "them"]].
[[/folder]]

* It works even worse for the player in ''ReturnToCastleWolfenstein]]'': While flame works well against the sword'n'shield zombies, it turns the unarmed ghost-skull ones into mean firebreathing mofos.

* The third book in ASongofIceAndFire has the example of Beric Dondarrion taking on Sandor "the Hound" Clegane with a flaming sword. [[spoiler: Despite the fact that Sandor is terrified of fire due to childhood trauma, it doesn't work. Beric dies, although [[IGotBetter it doesn't stick]].]]

* In ''[[ResidentEvil Resident Evil 4]]'', before fighting the Village Elder, Leon shoots an [[ExplodingBarrels explosive barrel]], setting him and the barn their both locked inside on fire. This doesn't so much kill him as make him [[OneWingedAngel reveal his terrible true form]].

* In the prologue of the book ''Ghost Soldiers'' about the Bataan Death March in WWII, a burning U.S. P.O.W. set his Japanese executioner on fire.

* LupinIII features the first meeting of Lupin and eventual ally Goemon ending in this fashion; Lupin threw a special chemical onto the samurai that burst into flames when it came into contact with the air. Not content to let Lupin get away with this, Goemon tosses a flaming rope at Lupin, which lights him on fire as well and ends the fight. As it's ''Lupin'', [[IGotBetter They Got Better]].

* This troper read Ghost Soldiers. In the prologue, a burning U.S. P.O.W. sets his Japanese executioner on fire.

* [[http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=645 This]] ''Sequential Art'' strip.

* Partial example: in ''{{Naruto}}'', Sasuke sets [[spoiler:the 8-Tails on fire]] with [[spoiler:Amaterasu]], which makes it flail around and hit ''his teammate'' Karin, setting her on fire (luckily, he found a way to put her out).[[/folder]]

* One ''{{Deadpool}}'' story shows him and Siryn fighting Juggernaut. After trying to stop him with meat cleavers fails, Deadpool dumps a vat of molten steel onto him. He and Siryn then end up fleeing from a ''burning'' Juggernaut.[[/folder]]

* {{Christine}} pulls this off with one of the guys who vandalized her: After blowing up a gas station, while still burning, she chases him down a road.[[/folder]]

* Happens after a fashion in the ''LoneWolf'' book ''Wolf's Bane''. Early on in the story, Lone Wolf is trapped in an otherworldly plant stem. Your options include cutting your way out, shouting your way out, and using magic. The problem comes with the last option, since the player isn't told ''which'' spell Lone Wolf will use. He ends up casting his lightning hand spell, which does effectively open the stem up, but it also causes the apparently flammable sap in the stem to ignite and burn furiously. You take damage from the resulting inferno if you're not immune to fire.[[/folder]]

* The third book in ASongofIceAndFire has the example of Beric Dondarrion taking on Sandor "the Hound" Clegane with a flaming sword. [[spoiler: Despite the fact that Sandor is terrified of fire due to childhood trauma, it doesn't work. Beric dies, although [[IGotBetter it doesn't stick]].]][[/folder]]

[[folder:In General]]
* As established in the page quote, doing this to zombies is a dice roll. While they may lack the brains to put themselves out, and the thinking is they'd bump into each other and set each other on fire, setting off a chain reaction of sort is fine, it tends to backfire as they can also run into ''you'', or the building you're hiding out in, or any surrounding buildings, in which case you'll set ''everything around you on fire''. Also, zombies aren't scared by fire and don't feel pain, so it wouldn't be as scary as it would for a normal human. The odds are you'll make things worse. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice going]].[[/folder]]

* [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=26837 Nothing ruins your day like a blazing zombie.]][[/folder]]

* Notable exception to this rule are the zombies from the original ''Night of the Living Dead''. They did fear fire and setting one ablaze would cause it to run off in a panic.[[/folder]]

** David Suzuki is crying somewhere.[[/folder]]

* In ''Mage: the Awakening'' however, its necessary to assign a weakness to a zombie (otherwise you have to devote a success to making it so they can only be destroyed by essentially [[ChunkySalsaRule being reduced to a fine paste]]) which can include fire.[[/folder]]