History Main / LetThePastBurn

* At almost-not-quite the end of ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'', Alfred burns down Wayne Manor so that nobody can look through it for evidence or clues after Batman's identity as Bruce Wayne is revealed to the public while [[spoiler:faking his death]]. Symbolically, [[Alfred dies of a stroke right afterwards.]]

* At almost-not-quite the end of ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'', Alfred burns down Wayne Manor so that nobody can look through it for evidence or clues after Batman's identity as Bruce Wayne is revealed to the public while [[spoiler:faking his death]].

The huge material loss suffered by the owner of the house is generally peripheral to the story, with the real point of the trope being that the fire symbolizes letting go of the things from the past that were tied to the house, and being able to finally embrace the future.

* ''ComicBook/PrinceOfPersiaTheGraphicNovel'' ends its 9th-century storyline with the usurper burning down the royal palace with himself rather than surrender it to Prince Guiv. Much of the 13th-century storyline is set in the ruins of this palace.

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Memento}}''. The protagonist suffers from a condition that prevents him from forming long-term memories. He says the last thing he remembers is his wife dying during a home invasion robbery, which prevents him from moving on from her death. In an effort to do so he's shown burning some photos of her and personal articles, but it's to little effect as he doesn't remember this for long either.

** [[Recap/DoctorWho2022NYSEveOfTheDaleks "Eve of the Daleks"]] is set in a storage unit run by Sarah, who only keeps it open out of a sense of duty to her late uncle, the founder of the business. She cares so little about it that she renamed the business "ELF Storage" rather than [[SignsOfDisrepair repair a store sign]]. Meanwhile, Sarah's best customer, Nick, has taken to using his part of the unit to hoard trinkets from his multiple ex-girlfriends, in the misguided belief that "they might ask for them back one day". When the Doctor blows the unit up at the end of the episode in order to destroy some Daleks, Sarah is freed from her responsibility to it and decides to pursue her dream of travelling, while Nick is freed from the emotional baggage associated with his items; in fact he deliberately lets them get destroyed by a Dalek DeathRay during a GroundhogDayLoop.

* ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'': The trauma of [[spoiler:being beaten by Fred, losing her finger at his hands and giving away Nichole so that she can have a better life culminates in Serena burning the Waterford house down]].

* ''Series/Titans2018''. In "The Asylum", Dick Grayson--having realised that he can't give up being a masked vigilante, yet can't go back to being Robin again--burns his Robin costume in the flames of the eponymous Asylum (which they've just blown up). In the next episode he mentions this to Donna Troy, who has given up being Wondergirl. She's a bit bemused as she just put her costume in a closet, given that those high-tech supersuits are expensive. Sure enough Dick has to get a new supersuit for the SeasonFinale, and the guy making them is rather pissed that he destroyed the old one.

** The prison, which is the main base for the group from the beginning of Season 3, burns down during the battle in the Season 4 mid-season finale, and the group are separated as they are forced to flee.

* "Blown Away" by Music/CarrieUnderwood plays with the idea. The house isn't destroyed by a fire, but by a tornado. The protagonist of the song takes shelter from the tornado while letting her abusive father stay passed out on the couch without trying to wake him up, resulting in the house being destroyed and her father dying via MurderByInaction.

** ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3'' has Fazbear's Fright -- a horror attraction based off of the unsolved mysteries of the Freddy Fazbear's Pizza -- that contains several old relics from the pizzeria's history end up burning to the ground, likely caused by faulty wiring.

* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': It's revealed that [[spoiler: a huge stockpile of hidden explosives were used at the end of the second day of the Ushiromiya murder mystery which creates a huge crater on the island and destroys their mansion, the family members, and any evidence with it]]. Episode 4 and episode 8 of the visual novel suggest that it would be much better to forget about the incident, and let the hype, driven by the media, die so that relatives of people who died can move on.

* According to legend, the English king Richard II had his palace at Sheen burned down after the death of his first wife, Queen Anne, because the place was a favourite of hers and the memories associated with it, though once pleasant, had become too painful to him.

'''Nick:''' Ex... Terminate? ''([[IncrediblyLamePun Dalek kills him]])''

This trope is almost always an EndingTrope, as it gives an effective close to the story and symbolically lays the past to rest. Tends toward a BittersweetEnding. It is used particularly in GothicLiterature.

* ''Lou''. The title character is shown burning classified documents and film before putting a rifle under her chin with the intention of committing suicide. [[InterruptedSuicide The events of the film intervene]], and we later discover it was blackmail material she was using against the CIA, after having worked for them as a field agent.

* At the end of "[[Literature/{{Kane}} Reflections on the Winter of my Soul]]", Kane sets the manor he has spent the story in on fire along with all the dead bodies inside and reflects on the life that he could have had -- at least for a while.

* ''Series/Titans2018''. In "The Asylum", Dick Grayson--having realised that he can't give up being a masked vigilante, yet can't go back to being Robin again--burns his Robin costume in the flames of the eponymous Asylum (which they've just blown up). In the next episode he mentions this to Donna Troy, who has given up being Wondergirl. She's a bit bemused as she just put her costume in a closet, given that those high-tech supersuits are expensive.

** In the FanEdit ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker: Resurgence'' by krausfadr, Kylo Ren continues in his belief of letting the past die, giving Corellia an EarthShatteringKaboom.

** [[Recap/DoctorWho2022NYSEveOfTheDaleks "Eve of the Daleks"]] is set in a storage unit run by Sarah, who only keeps it open out of a sense of duty to her late uncle, the founder of the business. She cares so little about it that she renamed the business "ELF Storage" rather than [[SignsOfDisrepair repair a store sign]]. Meanwhile, Sarah's best customer, Nick, has taken to using his part of the unit to hoard trinkets from his multiple ex-girlfriends, in the misguided belief that "they might ask for them back one day". When the Doctor blows the unit up at the end of the episode in order to destroy some Daleks, Sarah is freed from her responsibility to it and decides to pursue her dream of travelling, while Nick is freed from the emotional baggage associated with his items.

* In ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven'', Balian burns down his house and smithery when he kills his priest brother in rage for decapitating his wife’s corpse. His wife had committed suicide after the death of their baby. With his home gone and as a wanted man, Balian joins his father and leaves for Jerusalem. The soundtrack that plays as the house burns is named ‘Burning the Past”.

* Toward the end of the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book ''Rising Storm'', a dry summer and young humans messing around results in a forest fire, badly burning [=ThunderClan=]'s territory, including their camp. Three of the Clan are killed in the fire, and while they do return, it takes a long time to recover and rebuild.

* The second season of ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' ends with the barn of walkers being burned during the attack on the farm.

* In the backstory of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E2GhostLight Ghost Light]]", Ace, mourning the death of her best friend in a fire, burned a local haunted mansion to the ground. She's less than pleased to find that the Doctor has taken her back in time to that same mansion to find out why it frightened her so.

** [[Recap/DoctorWho2022NYSEveOfTheDaleks "Eve of the Daleks" is set in a storage unit run by Sarah, who only keeps it open out of a sense of duty to her late uncle, the founder of the business. Meanwhile, Sarah's best customer, Nick, has taken to using his part of the unit to hoard trinkets from his multiple ex-girlfriends, in the misguided belief that "they might ask for them back one day". When the Doctor blows the unit up at the end of the episode in order to destroy some Daleks, Sarah is freed from her responsibility to it and decides to pursue her dream of travelling, while Nick is freed from the emotional baggage associated with his items.

** [[Recap/DoctorWho2022NYSEveOfTheDaleks "Eve of the Daleks" is set in a storage unit run by Sarah, who only keeps it open out of a sense of duty to her late uncle, the founder of the business. When the Doctor blows it up at the end of the episode in order to destroy some Daleks, it frees Sarah of her responsibility to it and allows her to pursue her dream of travelling. As a bonus, her best customer Nick was using one of the units to hoard the possessions of his many exes "in case they ask for it back one day", which are also destroyed in the carnage.

* At almost-not-quite the end of ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' Alfred burns down Wayne Manor so that nobody can look through it for evidence or clues after Batman's identity as Bruce Wayne is revealed to the public while [[spoiler: faking his death]].

* This, along with DestroyTheAbusiveHome, occurs in ''Fanfic/KiryuuinChronicles'', when a mentally ill [[spoiler: Ragyo]], after dealing with years of her husband's abuse throughout their marriage, along with the memories and psychological damage thereof, in a fit of pent up rage burns their house down, destroying the house and killing him (whether or not she killed him in the fire or before she started to torch the house is never said).

-->'''Lord Shen:''' You were wrong, soothsayer. We sail to victory tonight. Your magic panda is clearly a fool.
-->'''Soothsayer:''' Are you certain it is the panda who is a fool? You just destroyed your ancestral home, Shen!
-->'''Lord Shen:''' A trivial sacrifice... ''(plunges spear into a brazier of burning coals, uses it to set fire to a map of China)'' ...when [[TakeOverTheWorld all of China is my reward!]]

** In the FanEdit The Rise of Skywalker: Resurgence by krausfadr, Kylo Ren continues in his belief of letting the past die, giving Corellia an EarthShatteringKaboom.

* Performing a meta version of this is a hallmark of many of Creator/{{Suda 51}}'s games (especially his aptly named "Kill The Past" series,) as protagonists from previous games have a tendency to either be confirmed dead in a later game, or show up alive, [[BackForTheDead but only for a few minutes at best.]]

[[folder: Visual Novel]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Grandpa vs Sexual Inadequacy", Homer and Abe begin arguing after visiting the farmhouse where they lived before moving to Springfield. They both accidentally set the house on fire without each other knowing, and they resolve the feud at the end of the episode as the farmhouse burns to the ground.