Trope idea from the Trope Launch Pad (source draft
). Welp, somebody else has already made a TLP draft here.
Laconic:
Fire is associated with heroism.Possible Names:
Description:
As an Elemental Motif or superpower, fire tends to be reserved for the leads, heroic or villainous. We perceive fire as powerful and overwhelming, a force to be reckoned with. Exactly what you want your Main Characters to represent. After all, Personality Powers dictates that the powers you wield have a heavy hand in shaping your personality and appearance.It also helps that flames, with their wavering colors, are a damn awesome aesthetic and partially explains why Red Is Heroic. Fire has come to be associated with several ideas, some of them shared with the aforementioned color —passion, heat, destruction, killing, cleansing, and hell. This gives it a lot of flexibility. A fire-themed hero can be warm and comforting like a bonfire while the villain is a raging inferno.
Like the other Tropes in Aggregate, this one is about something that might be meaningless within an individual work of fiction but becomes a noticeable pattern once several works are examined. As such, it's not enough for a random heroic character to have fire powers. Not, they have to be a Main Character such as the Big Bad, the Big Good, The Protagonist, The Heavy or The Leader.
Now, this doesn't mean other people Playing with Fire cancels this trope. The lead can belong to a race of fire-wielders just fine. Maybe they possess an interesting or more powerful variant. Or they are part of a team and the other members have different powers.
Sister Trope of Heroes Prefer Swords. Combined with that trope, it's the reason why Flaming Swords are so cool.
Examples:
Anime & Manga- Bakugan: Dan Kuso, the Hero Protagonist, uses Pyrus Dragonoid, a fire elemental.
Live-Action TV
- Power Rangers Samurai: The Red Ranger has fire powers.
Western Animation
- The Smurfs: The villain of the Christmas Episode attempts to cast a huge spell of fire that only the singing of the Smurfs and Gargamel can stop.
- Winx Club: Bloom.
From the original draft:
Heroic- Lina Inverse of Slayers, also known for her Bad Temper, has a thing for fire spells when the fate of the world isn't in danger.
- Spyro The Dragon has his default power as Fire (He gains more later, but always starts with fire)
Both
- In Blue Exorcist, Big Bad Satan and his son, Rin (The Hero) both use blue flames.
- In the New Vestroia season of Bakugan, While Dan, the Hero, still uses the Pyrus (fire) element, the meanest villains, Spectra and King Zenoheld, also use Pyrus.
