Infernal Retaliation: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"Established wisdom for modern zombie hunters: The only thing worse than a horde of zombies is a horde of ''flaming'' zombies."''|''[[The Zombie Survival Guide]]''}}

{{examples}}

== General Examples ==

* In ''[[Inuyasha]],'' Jaken uses his staff to try to burn one of another villain's [[Asteroids Monster|attacking pieces]]. Bad idea.

* 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).

* In the ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime, the battle between Ash's Charizard and Blaine's Magmar seems to end with Magmar diving into lava while holding Charizard in a headlock. However, it turns out that being dunked only made Charizard angry when he explodes from the lava with Magmar in tow and proceeds to Seismic Toss him right back into the volcano.

 

* ''[[V for Vendetta]]'' has this, but it's a borderline case. The hero{{spoiler|, V,}} gets set on fire during his explosive escape {{spoiler|from a hideous concentration camp/secret medical test site}}, walks off into the sunset, goes ''[[Bored with Insanity|utterly sane]]'' and proceeds to take down {{spoiler|the dictatorship responsible for his physical and mental disfigurement}}. Although by the time he does it he's not on fire anymore, so it's debatable.

* ''[[Hellboy (comics)|Hellboy]]: Blood and Iron''. Pyrokinetic Liz heats up metal Hecate; she gets BIGGER and makes things very uncomfortable for Hellboy, who she's holding. Oops.

* The page picture comes from [[Grant Morrison]]'s run on [[Justice League of America]] and depicts Orion punching out a White Martian. [[Captain Obvious|While on fire]].

 

* Happens in the 2008 horror film ''Mirrors''. Makes some sense as {{spoiler|the "villain" Anna is possessed by some sort of otherworldly evil force and hence probably isn't bound by normal human limits.}}

* Jason in ''[[Freddy vs. Jason]]'' is set on fire. It doesn't keep him from killing anyone. To top it off, spraying beer eventually puts him out before it can do any real damage. Doubly ironic as it was being dosed in more highly concentrated alcohol that set him on fire in the first place.

* Happens to the eponymous character in ''[[Maniac Cop 2]]''.

** In ''[[Maniac Cop 3 Badge of Silence]]'', it happens during a car chase.

 

* In ''Stone of Tears'', the second book of the [[Sword of Truth]] series, Zedd, Chase, and Chase's daughter encounter a beast from the Underworld. The little girl uses a magic wand to set it on fire... and the beast start laughing and presses the attack. It's eventually defeated (but not killed) when Zedd encases it in a block of ice and order guards to chop it to bits.

* The third book in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' 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 it doesn't stick.}}

* 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.

 

* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'': The monstrous Tyranids were damaged as normal by fire attacks, but could continue moving and attacking. In fact, several models (particularly those who were [[Axe Crazy|affected by the Frenzy rules]]) were subject to this. Khorne Berzerkers were as tough as a [[Super Soldier|"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.

* Golems in several editions of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' are often strengthened by some magical attacks. For example, flesh golems are hasted by electrical attacks, and iron golems are healed by fire attacks.

* Frequently seen with inferno missiles (basically napalm rounds for short-range launchers) against BattleMechs in ''[[BattleTech]]''. Infernos do not cause actual damage to 'Mechs, they just add to their heat troubles; especially under the old Master Rules, where the amount of extra heat for being on fire from infernos was fixed at a relatively modest six points per turn and additional hits just increased the ''duration'', sufficiently cool-running 'Mechs could play this trope dead straight.

 

* Ignus from ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' is permanently on fire as a result of the collective hedge wizards in the Hive opening a portal to the elemental plane of fire ''inside his body'' and turning him into a living effigy as a way of punishing him for an act of mass arson. As a punishment, it failed miserably—it only made him ''happy''.

* In ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'', before fighting the Village Elder, Leon shoots an [[Exploding Barrels|explosive barrel]], setting him and the barn they're both locked inside on fire. This doesn't so much kill him as make him [[One-Winged Angel|reveal his terrible true form]].

* In the original [[Syphon Filter]] game, in stages where a lot is burning, there will be some mooks, on fire, running <s> wildly</s> to ''you''! Since you'll take massive damage when caught on fire, the best option (and only, actually), is to put said mook out of his misery.

* Done to hilarious effect in ''[[Time Splitters]]''. Hell, there is 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!

* 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.

* ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]'' - The final battle. What is cooler than {{spoiler|a [[Badass]] [[Dual-Wielding]] a sword and axe? A [[Badass]] [[Dual-Wielding]] a sword and axe who is ''on fire''. Oh, and don't forget [[Crowning Music of Awesome|his battle theme]]. Or the fact that his [[Limit Break|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.}}

* ''[[Adventure Quest]]'' has the Razorclaws, wolves transformed by dark magic to act as assassins for their sorcerous masters. They are most vulnerable to fire, but if you are foolish enough to actually use fire on a Razorclaw, it will catch fire and perform a vicious attack on you for serious damage.

 

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'': "[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20081027 Great. Now the crowd is trapped by the stalagmites while the flaming monster advances.]"

* In ''[[8-Bit Theater]]'', Red Mage attempts, and ''[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2008/02/09/episode-953-heartburn/ fails]'', to invoke this trope.

* ''[[Awkward Zombie]]'' guest comic [https://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic/p-1000 presents]: ''[[Mario Kart]] 8'', now with Fire Flower and Bowser trying to remember [[Bring My Brown Pants|where he put his brown pants]].

 

* A [[Nuke'Em|nuke]] was one of the methods proposed by the [[SCP Foundation]] 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 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.

 

* Another example reiterated in a comedy routine. Man lights bonfire. Man sees mouse. Man throws mouse into bonfire. Burning mouse runs into man's house. Man has no house. Man tells story on news.

 

== Examples with Zombies ==

* As established in the page quote, doing this to zombies is a crapshoot. 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. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Nice going]].

 

* An experiment in ''[[Highschool of the Dead]]'' demonstrates that a molotov cocktail does not, in the short term, improve an assault from [[Not Using the Z Word|"them"]].

 

* Demonstrated in the recent remake of ''[[Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)|Dawn of the Dead]]'': The DVD has an extra about a guy holed up in a gunshop who tries molotov cocktails on the zombie horde from his roof. All he gets is lots of walking, charred zombies (people don't really burn that well, being largely water and all) who all smell like smoky bacon (he's running low on food).

** In the actual movie, a group in the parking garage lock the zombies outside a chain-link fence, then set them on fire when they realize that they're getting through. The zombies do burn enough to die, but that may be justified by the group dousing them in gasoline beforehand.

* 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.

 

* It is noted both in ''[[World War Z]]'' and ''[[The Zombie Survival Guide]]'' that flaming zombies have caused added havok (and increased property damage) on more than one occasion.

 

* 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.)

 

* 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 [[Chunky Salsa Rule|being reduced to a fine paste]]) which can include fire.

* ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' has a special undead monster, "Blazing Bones". It's created when someone under [[Dead-Man Switch|death-preventing contingency magic]] is killed by fire while using another magic and they all interfere. It is a skeleton with remains of its living mind, still aflame, and still feeling this. It quickly discovers that hurling or pouring fire into someone else gives relief and [[Being Tortured Makes You Evil|goes on an insane rampage]]. It's "healed" by magical fire damage, but obviously is not going to be grateful for this.

 

* In ''[[Halo 3]]'', using fire against the Flood can sometimes lead to this. Sticky grenades [[Oh Crap|had a similar effect]] in the earlier games.

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

** Their ''[[Wolfenstein (2009 video game)|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.

* A possibility within the [[Nazi Zombies]] mode of ''[[Call of Duty]]: World at War''. While flamethrowers will generally be a good weapon against the zombies for most of the game, it becomes more dangerous later on as they get more health. However, being careful and just running around, lighting zombies aflame and keeping your distance while they burn usually works.

* In ''[[Castlevania]]: [[Portrait of Ruin]]'' striking a zombie ([[Palette Swap|or ghoul]]) with a fire attack causes them to become skeletons, even if the attack should've reduced their HP to zero.

* Generally speaking, setting the zombies in ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' 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. 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 switch over to attacking you instead, until either she dies, or you do. Finally, the tank gains a small speed boost when lit on fire in Campaign mode.

* ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]'' has the Grout's Mansion level, where you have to find a lost vampire primogen who was studying madness. And of course, he has a lot of human test subjects. When you arrive at the mansion, you will soon realize that all this madmen have somehow been able to free themselves and aren't exactly happy to see you. So, after you punched, shot and sliced your way through the mansion, you come across a vampire hunter, who sets the whole place on fire. And also, it seems like some of the test subjects have survived your fights in the mansion and now are on fire as well. And instead of running out of the mansion (they are insane after all) they decide to try killing you again. They are much more vulnerable now, it usually takes only two shots to kill them. However, considering that vampires are very vulnerable to fire, they can also take out ''you'' with two hits. It's helpful to have a machine gun when these guys approach you.

* A serious threat in ''[[Saints Row]]''. Burning people can set other people on fire, and burning cars explode, scattering burning debris which can also set people on fire.

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

* In the expansion pack of ''[[Postal]] 2'', Apocalypse Weekend, setting zombies on fire is about as effective as dousing them in lemon juice. Actually, it's even less effective, as the fire will do nothing (these zombies [[Your Head Asplode|require their heads to be destroyed before they'll stop attacking]]), and unless you cut their legs off beforehand, they'll just run up to you and set ''you'' on fire too.

 

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

 

* 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.