Wreathed in Flames

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Of the four, girls find him the hottest.

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.

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.

Examples of Wreathed in Flames include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Film - Animation


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


Literature

  • The Balrog in The 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 now that he's a ghost. Sort of. When he gets angry, his entire body starts to burn, and it actually blisters him.

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

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

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

  1. Good thing about his fine fire proof ninja suit.