Arrows on Fire: Difference between revisions

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[[File:~~Arrows_On_Fire_2247~~.jpg|link=Magic: The Gathering|right]]

[[File:Arrows On Fire 2247.jpg|link=Magic: The Gathering|right]]

In battles you will often see arrows that are on fire (especially at night). These arrows are used to [[Man On Fire|set enemies]] [[Kill It with Fire|on fire]].

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* Set flammable material on fire.

There is therefore nothing mockable about them being used en masse to attack wooden buildings or to try to panic a civilian population, but the trope gets taken to extremes when they are ''always'' used in night battles even in situations where the lighting-things-on-fire factor would be a non-factor, such as when attacking a stone castle (except when the attacking army is in a position to shoot ''over'' the walls and there are wooden buildings on the ~~inside--which~~ there usually ~~are--in~~ which case it's justified).

There is therefore nothing mockable about them being used en masse to attack wooden buildings or to try to panic a civilian population, but the trope gets taken to extremes when they are ''always'' used in night battles even in situations where the lighting-things-on-fire factor would be a non-factor, such as when attacking a stone castle (except when the attacking army is in a position to shoot ''over'' the walls and there are wooden buildings on the inside—which there usually are—in which case it's justified).

Flaming arrows also give the advantage of letting you see where your arrow lands during the night, so you can correct your shot. They are also very useful as signals in a society with that level of technology.

[[Molotov Cocktail~~|Molotov Cocktails~~]] are arguably the modern counterpart.

[[Molotov Cocktail]]s are arguably the modern counterpart.

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== Film ==

* ''[[Michael Crichton|Timeline]]'' - Used straight, then subverted: "Fire the Night Arrows."

* Subverted in ''Troy'', where the Trojans use flaming arrows to set wooden boats on fire, then return to using conventional arrows to kill people. Also subverted in the actual Iliad, for the same ~~reason -- they~~ also used firebrands.

* Subverted in ''Troy'', where the Trojans use flaming arrows to set wooden boats on fire, then return to using conventional arrows to kill people. Also subverted in the actual Iliad, for the same reason—they also used firebrands.

* One of the most famous shots of the movie ''[[Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves]]'' was Kevin Costner's Robin letting fly with one of these in slow-mo.

* ''[[Robin Hood: Men in Tights|Robin Hood Men in Tights]]'' parodies the trope's overuse in [[Robin Hood]] films. It featured an opening credits sequence back by random shots of people shooting [[Arrows on Fire]]... and then they show the thatch-roofed village that they destroyed with these arrows "every time they make a new Robin Hood movie."

* ''[[Robin Hood: Men in Tights|Robin Hood Men in Tights]]'' parodies the trope's overuse in [[Robin Hood]] films. It featured an opening credits sequence back by random shots of people shooting Arrows on Fire... and then they show the thatch-roofed village that they destroyed with these arrows "every time they make a new Robin Hood movie."

* Done in ''[[Braveheart]]''. The night before the battle of Falkirk, Wallace's soldiers had coated the ground under the English army with pitch. He then used archers with lit arrows to light it and set many of the English troops on fire. How he knew ''exactly'' where they would be standing is another question. Other questions are why the English did not notice that the ground they were standing on was soaked with pitch and where did they get that large of a quantity of pitch? <ref>It was obviously a [[Just for Pun|pitched battle]].</ref>

* Used in the opening battle of ''[[Gladiator (film)|Gladiator]]''. The Romans initially held the barbarians back with conventional arrows then, once the battle started, they shot flaming arrows and flaming catapult projectiles which seemed to have a longer range. We see a lot of barbarians break and run: smoke and fire clogging up your side of the field, watching allies being burned ~~alive -- not~~ good.

* Used in the opening battle of ''[[Gladiator (film)|Gladiator]]''. The Romans initially held the barbarians back with conventional arrows then, once the battle started, they shot flaming arrows and flaming catapult projectiles which seemed to have a longer range. We see a lot of barbarians break and run: smoke and fire clogging up your side of the field, watching allies being burned alive—not good.

{{quote|In the DVD extras, Ridley Scott said his use of flaming arrows was designed to invoke the images of tracer bullets from the footage of the Gulf War.}}

* King Arthur's troops made use of these in ''First Knight.'' Interestingly, the arrows appeared to use something like magnesium as the flammable agent, which, at least, [[Rule of Cool|looked cool.]]

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** In ''[[Age of Empires II]]'', this upgrade is required to produce gunpowder units.

** ''[[Age of Empires III]]'' - Portrayed in most realistic manner in comparision to the others - archers only fire flaming arrows at buildings, using regular arrows against other troops, and the range at which they can attack buildings is smaller than against troops.

* The ''Battle for Middle-Earth'' plays this in a similar manner to the above. Fire Arrows, an upgrade for most archer units, adds a decent damage boost vs most normal units, and makes them much more effective vs buildings. It also allows them to cause damage to the wooden walls and gate of Rohan castle defenses. In BFME2 Men of the West keep fire arrows, but Elves get silverthorn blue-glowy arrows. Dwarves get axe throwers (upgraded by forged axes) ''and'' human archers of ~~dale -- upgraded~~ with fire arrows. All the bad guys get ''Orcfire'' arrows, because ''fire set by Orcs is just better.''

* The ''Battle for Middle-Earth'' plays this in a similar manner to the above. Fire Arrows, an upgrade for most archer units, adds a decent damage boost vs most normal units, and makes them much more effective vs buildings. It also allows them to cause damage to the wooden walls and gate of Rohan castle defenses. In BFME2 Men of the West keep fire arrows, but Elves get silverthorn blue-glowy arrows. Dwarves get axe throwers (upgraded by forged axes) ''and'' human archers of dale—upgraded with fire arrows. All the bad guys get ''Orcfire'' arrows, because ''fire set by Orcs is just better.''

* In ''Rome: Total War'' and ''Medieval II: Total War'' archers can be told to light their arrows on fire. However, due to the ''[[Total War]]'' series being more of a realistic tactical simulator and less of your usual real-time strategy fare, flaming arrows in this game are less accurate and, on the whole, less damaging and take a lot longer to reload. The entire point of firing them is the psychological punch, as they deplete enemy morale like mad, often sending fearless spearmen running within a few volleys. Flaming catapult ammunition, on the other hand, is much more destructive (and utterly ruinous to morale), but again less accurate and slower to reload. Setting any projectile on fire also eats through the ammunition supply more quickly, so a unit of archers firing flaming arrows will probably only get off half the shots of their non-flaming counterparts over the course of a battle.<br />** The siege engines can fire rather ahistorical flaming/exploding projectiles. Flaming Arrows can also be used to set enemy siege equipment (such as siege towers or battering rams) on fire, which is a very important thing when you are defending a castle/town. And because of the importance of breaking enemy units' morale in the ''[[Total War]]'' series, units of archers with bows can actually become more useful than crossbowmen, who tend to deal more damage. Bow-wielding archers can set their arrows on fire, whereas crossbowmen can't, so the archers can do hefty damage to the enemy's morale even if they aren't killing very many of the enemy, which in turn can break the enemy unit much faster.

* ''[[Gun (video game)|Gun]]'' - In addition to the "whiskey bomb" molotov cocktails, flaming arrows are also a weapon option. It is not clear exactly how you are setting them on fire.

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* The ''Warhammer Fantasy'' video game ''Mark of Chaos'' allowed elven archers to use fire arrows (slower firing rate as a drawback). These wreaked havoc among the enemy's morale, which is probably the most tactical goal to achieve - probably more than killing every single enemy soldier.

* In ''[[Okami]]'', gaining entrance to Sei-an City requires that you light a torch to lower a bridge. Said torch is on the other side of the gorge which you need to cross. The solution is to get the archer who normally uses a flaming arrow to light said torch to fire an unlit arrow, just to prove he can, then light it on fire midflight using a brush skill.

* In the ''[[Half Life|Half-Life 2]]'' mod ''Fistful of Frags,'' you can get flaming arrows for the bow weapon. They either light people on fire, or light an area on fire. For a few frags more, you can get dynamite arrows. The regular arrows do a lot of damage, and are pretty good; the fire arrows, being a little hard to use, are kinda bad; the dynamite ~~arrows--well~~, the result of using those is just ugly.

* In the ''[[Half Life|Half-Life 2]]'' mod ''Fistful of Frags,'' you can get flaming arrows for the bow weapon. They either light people on fire, or light an area on fire. For a few frags more, you can get dynamite arrows. The regular arrows do a lot of damage, and are pretty good; the fire arrows, being a little hard to use, are kinda bad; the dynamite arrows—well, the result of using those is just ugly.

* In ''[[Mabinogi]]'', standing next to a campfire and drawing your arrow will cause the arrowhead to catch fire. This gives the arrow a damage bonus and fire element status. Also, landing 3 critical hits with this grants you the Fire Arrow title, which is needed in order to get the Arrow Revolver skill.

* In ''Stronghold'', braziers can be placed on castle walls. Archers firing from nearby will shoot flaming arrows which are more deadly to enemies and can also light pitch for further pyromania.