Wreathed in Flames



"Dr. McNinja: Oh, alright, the ninja poseurs out there now? They light you on fire? I guess I can spare a sec to get nuts on some punkers. Dan McNinja: No. I lit myself on fire. Anyway, I got in pretty deep, and now these tootlepuffs are trying to get me all the time. Dr. McNinja: You. Lit. Yourself. On fire. Why did you light yourself on fire. Dan McNinja: Huh? Seriously? Because. They can't grab me if I'm on fire."

- The Adventures of Dr. McNinja

A subtrope of Playing with Fire.

A character has the ability to set their whole body ablaze with flames. Different from Man On Fire, as the latter trope involves that person being harmed by said fire. Because fire is awesome, this makes the character automatically awesome. If they can turn it on or off, expect them to enjoy showing off via Finger-Snap Lighter. May be a form of Battle Aura. Flaming Hair is a subtrope of this, where a person can only ignite their hair. By their nature, the character is not harmed by setting themselves on fire—they have the Required Secondary Powers.

If the character becomes fire and is not simply covered in it, then the trope is Elemental Shapeshifter. May count as Elemental Armor. An extreme part of Burning with Anger.

Anime and Manga

 * The Winged Dragon of Ra in Yu-Gi-Oh! does this. They call his ignited form a phoenix.
 * Naruto
 * When Might Guy opens up the 6th Chakra Gate he able to use the Morning Peacock technique: Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs that go so fast the punches make shock-waves whose friction set the air on fire.
 * looks quite a lot like fire.
 * Fire magic users on Kaze no Stigma do this often.
 * Sekima Hiwatari of Busou Renkin.
 * Natsu's Flames Of Emotion gives him this effect.
 * Tsuna of Katekyo Hitman Reborn! has his hands and forehead covered by Sky Flames when he goes Hyper Dying Will Mode.
 * In Kinnikuman, Kinnikuman Mariposa can set himself on fire to prevent people from grabbing him. He can also use it offensively and burn his foes with physical contact.

Comic Books

 * The Human Torch from The Fantastic Four. The Torch has the Required Secondary Powers and feels no the pain of burning.
 * The original Golden Age Human Torch and his sidekick Toro. And their Modern Age Distaff Counterpart Tara.
 * Fire from DC Comics. Her fire is green and covers her naughty bits.
 * The Fallen from the Transformers Comics takes this to the extreme by not only being permanently on fire, but having flames inside his body.
 * Judge Fire, from Judge Dredd, as one would expect from the name.
 * Liz Sherman from Hellboy can do this.
 * Blue Fire from Wham Comics is covered in blue flames when manifesting his powers.

Film - Animation

 * Monstrous Nightmares in How to Train Your Dragon can do this.
 * One of Jack-Jack's powers in The Incredibles is this.

Film - Live Action

 * Fezzik, from The Princess Bride, with the holocaust cloak, in a wheelbarrow on fire. "There will be no suwvivows!"

Live Action TV

 * A villainous super in No Ordinary Family can do this, as well as throw fireballs.
 * Magired does this during his "Red Fire Phoenix" Finishing Move.
 * Similarly, Kamen Rider OOO in his TaJaDor form's Finishing Move.

Literature

 * The Balrog in Lord of the Rings.
 * Semirhage from Wheel of Time uses this as a disguise (though it is probably only an illusion).
 * Katniss of The Hunger Games is called the girl who was on fire for a reason.
 * Red of Monster can do this.
 * Firebirds of Russian mythology (not to be confused with The Phoenix, though they have several similarities). Depending on the version, they were either literally on fire or just glow-in-the-dark. Most people assume the former, since it's infinitely more badass.
 * In The Dresden Files book Ghost Story, Harry learns that things work a bit differently

Tabletop Games

 * Dungeons & Dragons
 * The Crimson Coat of Iphazz allows a character to do this in.
 * Fire Shield spells.
 * In 1st Edition the Type VI demon could immolate (create flames around itself). In 2nd Edition demons were renamed "Tanar'ri", the Type VI demon was renamed the "Balor" and its flaming protection was always on. It was based on Tolkien's Balrog (and was actually named Balrog in early editions of the game).
 * The Fire Aura spell in Shadowrun does this.
 * Exalted features the Fire-aspected Dragon-Blooded, who do this whenever their Battle Aura reaches a certain level.

Toys

 * Bionicle: Annona is a flaming, tentacled, Eldritch Abomination.

Video Games

 * Pokémon: Some Fire-type Pokémon are covered in flames, like Moltres or Rapidash. Several Fire-types have this to a lesser degree, like Emboar (who has a beard of flame) and Normal Mode Darmanitan (who has flaming eyebrows.) The moves Flare Blitz and Flame Wheel involve tackling the opponent while in this state. The former does produce recoil, though.
 * Ignus, from Planescape: Torment. Originally a Man On Fire, the fire did not really kill him. So he's now this.
 * Halo 3: In online multiplayer, you know what the quickest and easiest way to identify an employee of Bungie Studios is? They'll be wearing Hayabusa armor....that's on fire. This is a reference to a famous description of Halo 2, given by Bungie while it was still under development, "Halo 2 is a lot like Halo 1, except it's Halo 1 on fire going 120 miles per hour through a hospital zone chased by helicopters and ninjas. And the ninjas are all on fire too."
 * A simliar honour is bestowed upon those who preordered the game, but with red flames instead of blue. It tends to make them targets for snipers.
 * The Warcraft 3 ability Immolation, in which the unit covers himself in flame to damage the enemy (but manifests as a circle of flame surrounding the unit). The item "Cloak of Flames" gives this ability passively.
 * World of Warcraft: Warlocks get such an ability. It is also employed by mooks in Utgarde Keep.
 * StarCraft: The Archons (Blue fire!) and Dark Archons (Orange fire!).
 * Mortal Kombat Deception (PSP only) and Armageddon (All platforms) have Blaze. What is Blaze? About 20 feet of pure magma on fire.
 * Master of Magic has Immolation unit ability—units engaging an unit with it in a melee attack effectively subjected to a low-powered fireball.
 * Age of Wonders II has Ignition ability and Fire Halo enchantment. Anyone who isn't immune to fire is set aflame upon striking such an unit.
 * Flynn's Enhahou Yokushou Mystic Arte from the Play Station 3 version of Tales of Vesperia, seen here.
 * Gulcasa of Yggdra Union and Blaze Union, as part of his Dangerous Forbidden Technique.
 * Kyo from King of Fighters when pulling off a more powerful version of his orochinagi.
 * Kirby: Kirby turns into a fireball and rushes into his foes.
 * Clonk: The Metal and Magic fan-mod includes the hot blood spell, which causes this trope. Walking into your enemies after casting it can lead to another fun trope. Fun for you, that is, not for them.
 * Cinder from Killer Instinct. And his rival is...Glacius.
 * City of Heroes has a Fire Aura powerset. It also has Thermal Radiation, which has fire for multiple different purposes, such as healing wounds... with fire. Protecting your teammates from damage... with fire. Improving your allies resistance to status effect and improving their damage... with fire. And finally, the only logical use of the powerset—causing damage to your enemies' resistances and ability to recover from wounds... well, you see where this is headed. The entire Thermal Radiation set is devoted to making your team into badasses through the precise art of setting them on fire.
 * Guild Wars has a spell that sets you on fire, and makes you faster. When it expires, you set everyone around you on fire.
 * From Borderlands, Lilith's Phoenix skill manifests as a pair of wings made of fire, as well as a bit of this. It triggers when she gets a kill, igniting nearby enemies and giving her a chance to have free bullets for a few seconds.
 * Lots of examples in Kingdom of Loathing: the monsters Flaming Troll and Flaming Samurai, as well as the Flaming Gravy Fairy familiar, all have this, as is pretty obvious from their names. For the player, there's the ability Salamander Kata, which doesn't hurt your enemies but constantly recharges your MP; a straighter version is the "Burning, Man" effect, which surrounds you in enemy-toasting fire, but also burns you just as badly unless you have a special tattoo.
 * A "Body of Fire" spell in Arcanum allows you to engulf anyboby, including yourself, with flames, resulting in added fire damage and resistance, as well as burning foes and their equipment when they hit the recepient with melee weapon. Howewer, it's the hardest spell to maintain, burning your mana at least twice faster than other prolonged spells, perhaps to prevent it from being a Game Breaker.

Web Comics

 * In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Dan McNinja sets himself on fire to prevent lesser ninjas from catching him. His suit is explicitly fireproof, but we don't find this out until about fifty pages later, after he lit himself on fire again.
 * Axe Cop: Axe Cop can light himself and his team on fire to become Axe Cop Fire and the Axe Cop Fire Gang.
 * Annie of Gunnerkrigg Court. Somewhat of an aversion; she can create large amounts of magical fire and not burn herself with it, so she certainly can do this, but she combines it with transforming into etheric Winged Humanoid shape, and the other time visibly into fire elemental (and wrapped Ysengrin too, while she's at it).
 * Damien from El Goonish Shive.
 * Wayward Sons: Hestya, whose powers are nearly identical to Johnny Storm's. Except there's only one known substance that can survive the heat, and her clothes aren't made of it.

Web Original

 * In a New York Magician story arc, Michel first sees Melooch (a firefighter) with his 'rider' (ancient fire god who's sharing his body) this way.
 * In the Global Guardians PBEM Universe, this was actually pretty common among characters who controlled fire. Starfire, Ablaze, Firefall, Inferna, Centigrade (who is also An Ice Person), Incendie ("Blaze" in French), Mondfeur ("Moonfire" in German), Ulkataranara ("Comet Man" in Hindi), Playma ("Flame" in Russian), Salamander, Sunfire, Wildfire, Flame, Ifrit, Komet, Inferno, Fuoco Bianco ("White Fire" in Italian), Pumpkin Jack, Tourmaline, Pyro, and Red Devil all could wrap flames around themselves like a blanket.
 * Homestar Runner: In Peasant's Quest, one of the requirements to be a peasant (and thus face Trogdor) is to be on fire.
 * Phoenixfire of the Whateley Universe. Like you couldn't guess from her codename.
 * Also her mom, making Phoenixfire's codename extra-appropriate.

Western Animation

 * The Venture Bros: One character is an expy of The Human Torch's from The Fantastic Four. But he feels terrible pain from the fire, lacking the Required Secondary Powers.
 * Chernobog in Fantasia.
 * Father from Codename: Kids Next Door. He's basically a black silhouette of a stereotypical sitcom dad who sounds like Orson Welles and is usually covered in flames. A character called Sir Toasty had the same shtick.
 * The denizens of the Fire Kingdom in Adventure Time.