Lava Pit: Difference between revisions

Like a [[Drowning Pit|swimming pool]], but more viscous and much hotter [[Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid|than water]], and somewhat less inviting. Plus it's too dense to sink into and doesn't require you to periodically add chlorine or scoop out leaves. And it really doesn't matter if you don't wait an hour after eating before you jump in. [[Dissimile|A better simile]], in fact, would be "not like a swimming pool." ([[Discworld/The Light Fantastic|cf.]]) Often used as a barrier rather than a trap proper, but with [[Trap Door|the right mechanisms]] and delivery chutes, a Lava Pit can make for a delightful surprise at the end of a long drop.

The [['''Lava Pit]]''' can only work as a slow descending trap thanks to [[Convection, Schmonvection]] - that wonderful law that says rising heat can't kill you and only touching the lava is fatal. Funnily enough, however, in many platform games, the lava seems to have sufficient viscosity for the player to launch him/herself into the air, shoes/backside on fire. You'll lose [[Hit Points]], of course.

* The climax of ''[[Noir]]'' takes place over a [[Lava Pit]], in the mystical dimension in-between Spain and France. No, not Andorra. {{spoiler|Altenna dies by falling into it. Kirika almost falls with her, but Mireille saves her.}}

** The Blackthorn Gym in ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver]]'' and the remakes has lava. The solution to cross it and get to Clair differs between the original (Strength puzzle) and remakes (rotating floor).

== ComicsComic Books ==

** Parodied in ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120511043453/http://www.animationarcade.com/animation/ring2.html One Ring to Rule Them All 2]''. Sauron ties up Frodo and Sam and slowly lowers them into Mt. Doom. ''Very'' slowly.

* [[Xena: Warrior Princess]] features on of these in "Sacrifice 2" [[Despair Event Horizon|with terrible]] [[Heroic Sacrifice|consequences]].

* ''[[MacGyver]]'' found himself in several of these, including the aforementioned incinerator and reactor.

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' took this to it's logical extreme in Dungeonscape where stats are provided for sadistic [[Game Master|Game Masters]]s that want to have sharks that can swim (and breathe) in lava. One assumes that they must be fed on a diet of adventurers considering that fairly few other things can and will submerge themselves in molten lava.

* ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'''s last test chamber includes a massive fire pit. [[G La DOSGLaDOS]] tried lowering the main character into the fire, only to have her escape with portals.

** ''[[YoshisYoshi's Island]] DS'' also has lava pits, which kill Yoshi instantly if he falls in. A lava pit also plays a part in the battles against Big Guy the Stilted, where he must be pushed into one so Yoshi can damage him.

*** Not just the sequel, the original ''[[YoshisYoshi's Island]]'' is a big fan of these as well.

** ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'' has lava pools ''with slopes''. It also has [[Palette Swap|Palette Swapped]]ped chocolate pits in Chocolate Island.

* ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]'' has lava areas in some levels. Fire Pokemon are able to move across them without taking damage.

** More than that, magma is the ''preferred'' way for most DF players to deal with virtually any problem. Too much garbage? Melt it in lava<ref>every worn out sock and broken quarrel in garbage dumps still exists in the simulated world, thus is tracked by engine, so destroying it without creation of another object slows down accumulation of memory and processing burden</ref>! Attacking hordes? Pump lava to the top of your tower, and pour liberally on any rash of invaders! Elves complaining about your deforestation? Melt the protesters! Your fortress flooding with regular water? Running out of good quality stone to craft with? Pour water and magma together, and you have an obsidian farming operation<ref>actually a good idea, since obsidian is the most valuable stone that isn't ore (which would be better off smelted into metal anyway), and you only need magma and water — usually both are unlimited resources</ref>!

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is in [[Lethal Lava Land|love with lava]] -- and—and [[Convection, Schmonvection]], as evidenced by the abundance of lava pits in zones like Blackrock Mountain, Burning Steppes, Dragonblight, Shadowmoon Valley, Ironforge, and others. It's also not entirely consistent regarding which lava is harmful - there are places where it's almost instantly fatal, places where it's annoying but not a major hazard as long as you get out quickly, and places where you can swim in or walk on it without any apparent ill effects. There's even one zone where you can ''fish'' in lava, although what you get out of it isn't edible.

** You can fish in ''any'' lava, with a normal fishing pole. And the perfectly normal fish you catch are not even deep fried.

* Long, long ago, pre-''Halo'', the Bungie company had the ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' series. A few levels take place undeground on some planet, and you can fall in lava if you're not careful. It's like water, except instead of the screen having a blue filter it has a red filter, and your health slides down--quicklydown—quickly, but not instantly.

* In the ''Awakenings'' expansion of ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'', you can find a prisoner suspended in a metal cage above a lava pit. ([[Convection, Schmonvection]], it seems.) You can set him free in exchange for a magical rune … [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|or just be a dick]] and kick open the cage, sending him plummeting into the lava.

* World 1 and 4 fortresses in ''[[Purple]]'' contain lava pits with [[Super Mario Bros.|Podoboo]]-like fireballs to boot. World 2 fortress has [[Acid Pool|Acid Pools]]s instead.

* ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' : The Joker dumps Batman into a trash incinerator in one episode. In another, Red Claw tries dropping him into actual lava.

* In a variation, the [[Lava Pit]] that {{spoiler|Orm chains his brother Aquaman ''and his baby son'' to}} in [[Justice League]] was ''an underwater volcano''. {{spoiler|Aquaman has to chop off his own hand to save both himself and his son.}}

** [[Death World|Apokolips]] is a world teeming with Fire Pits, which in the finale are implied to be made by drilling right into the planets magma core and letting all the smoke and flame spill out, which gives your atmosphere that nice [[Fire and Brimstone Hell]] look. The "implied" part comes when, during their latest [[Alien Invasion]], Apokolips tries to perform this terraforming feat on ''Earth'', turning us into a twisted mirror image of that world purely [[For the Evulz]].

[[Category:Death Trap Tropes]]